Low-code and no-code development tools let non-programmers build useful and powerful applications. There are those who believe that because of that, the need for well-trained developers will shrink. And as a result, the job market for them will shrink as well.
And while this may seem like a reality on face value, will dependence on new tools actually impact the developer job market? Should developers start panicking and looking to other positions that they can enhance with their technical know-how? An excellent set of answers come from an interview with Marcus Torres, GM of IntegrationHub and VP of Platform Product with ServiceNow, in the TechRepublic article “Low-code and no-code won't kill developer jobs, here's why.” Following are highlights from the interview.
Torres starts off by explaining, “The reality is development is a team sport. If you are an admin, if you're someone in operations, if you just know how to, you're fluent with Excel, the reality is there's platforms and technologies out there that allow you to do innovative things. It doesn't mean developers go away.”
For Torres, including low code platforms in your development strategy isn’t an exclusionary practice, rather it opens up new opportunities for developers and can actually improve their overall job satisfaction and the developer job market as a whole.
Low-Code Helps Empower Citizen Developers
Torres goes on to explain that professional developers are needed to help citizen developers make their applications better: “Real developers can actually enjoy empowering and educating this no- and low-code community to go further, faster and innovate themselves.”
In this way, developers can assume more leadership-facing jobs, allowing them to share their skill sets and general knowledge.
And while low code jobs on the market may look a little different for developers, professional developers will be needed to do more than that, he says: “The reality is, developers are the Jedis of innovation, and they'll continue to be in the future. They just get additional help and can go faster and build more with some of these platforms and along with their teammates.”
Low-Code Enables Digital Transformation
Torres believes that low-code and no-code platforms will be used to a great extent for what he calls remedial tasks, things like automating workflow and simple chores. And that, he believes, will free developers to work on much higher value work, particularly related to digital transformation: “The fact is these remedial tasks, what they do is they slow us down from being able to innovate, they slow us down from being able to actually focus on the critical things that are going to bring a higher value.”
In addition to this new role of leader and subject matter expert, developers will have the opportunity to truly impact how digitization of their respective industry evolves. Rather than spending the majority of their time dealing with the minutiae of development, developers will be able to dedicate significant headspace to changemaking.
He also believes that COVID will accelerate the use of low-code and no-code platforms, and also offer developers greater opportunities to work on creative, transformational projects. He concludes: “I think we are just seeing the true next generational wave of agility. If you look back 10 years, there's companies you think that would never go under, that no longer exist because of their lack of agility and ability to respond to customers and what customers are looking for. Now we have all of main street, all of retail, all of restaurants having to do the same thing, and it's about survival and you cannot survive without being agile and that's exactly what low-code platforms have provided.”
For Torres, the impact of low-code platforms extends far beyond the scope of app development. By harnessing these tools, industries can undergo rapid digitization, changing every facet of how work is conducted at their organization and the shape of the developer job market.
At Alpha Software, we believe that companies need more developers, not fewer. We believe businesses have so many market, labor, and competitive issues, they need developers building new applications that streamline tasks, turn manual processes digital, and quickly collect and deliver data in new ways. When companies empower citizen developers to automate tasks with no-code and low-code software, it frees up developers to tackle the complex technical challenges that can help the organization truly transform the business.
Choose the Right Platform for No-Code and Low-Code
Alpha Software is an ideal no-code/low-code platform for companies looking to empower citizen developers and help developers get complex applications built faster. Alpha Software products are well-suited for companies of all sizes that want to build powerful business applications and apps. Alpha TransForm no-code software helps business users craft online or offline mobile apps in minutes that utilize the latest mobile features (camera, GPS, etc.) for fast, accurate data capture. Learn more about Alpha TransForm
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