Understanding low-code development
Low-code is a software development approach that enables developers to create applications with minimal hand coding.
Unlike a traditional coding environment, where developers manually write lines of code to produce software, with low-code, developers use a model-driven, visual language with a drag-and-drop graphical interface.
Because of its visual development capabilities and automation, low-code enables developers to create complete applications with modern user interfaces, integrations, data, and logic much faster than traditional development. The low-code market is expected to reach $50 billion in revenue by 2028.
Why is low-code so popular?
Development teams are under a lot of pressure to respond to increasing customer expectations and to accelerate digital transformation efforts. And the demand to create new business solutions isn’t expected to slow down any time soon.
Traditional development was not designed to keep up with today’s need for speed, and the explosive SaaS adoption created by free-wheeling business teams has reached the point where it is hindering productivity.
In addition, hiring developer talent is more difficult than ever. There just aren't enough engineers in the world to fulfill the current development needs.
This has led to the growing adoption of low-code development.
What are the benefits of low-code development?
Low-code advantages include:
- Increased agility
- Maximized productivity
- Improved customer and employee experiences
- Increased collaboration between business and IT
- Quick and easy change and maintenance processes
- Lower barrier to entry and higher developer retention
- Faster innovation
1. Increased agility
Organizations can pivot quickly to new solutions that respond to market changes much faster.
That’s possible not only because of the speed of development but also because development teams can quickly present a working prototype. From there, they can gather business feedback fast and adjust accordingly, instead of going back and forth till they get it right.
See how Corporate One fuels agility and accelerates digital innovation with low-code
“What started as a way to build digital systems faster and reduce our maintenance effort soon grew in scope, as we realized the benefit that such an approach would have if we could cascade it to our member credit unions and their members.”
Jim Horlacher EVP, Chief Information Officer, Corporate One
2. Maximized developer productivity
By automating repetitive tasks and removing the complications of traditional software development and hand coding, low-code accelerates software development, which maximizes developer productivity and empowers organizations to do more with the same resources.
More advanced low-code platforms like OutSystems both abstract away and automate all the mundane and tedious development and CI/CD tasks that slow developers down and prevent the creativity that leads to innovative apps.
“In the past, we used traditional development and front-end frameworks like Angular. Development was slow, too costly, and we had a huge maintenance overhead to keep these web apps updated and secure. We looked at low-code to lessen this burden.”
Wesly Van Cleempoel IT Manager, Duvel Moortgat
Learn how Duvel Moortgat delivers 7 portals and 2 mobile apps 4x faster
3. Improved customer and employee experience
Organizations create new and innovative products much faster that meet customer expectations and boost employees efficiency and motivation. They can also adapt and change their existing products based on user feedback and data much more easily.
Full-featured low-code development platforms like OutSystems also include the capabilities necessary for delivering multiexperiences, allowing organizations to address all the ways customers engage digitally (e.g., touch, voice, and gesture).
“We’re not just improving established products and processes; we’re delivering disruptive innovations that break new ground and require fresh thinking.”
Guðný Herbertsdóttir Managing Director of Digital, VÍS
VÍS launches first-of-its-kind car insurance policy priced solely on driver behavior
4. Increased collaboration between business and IT
The visual programming approach of low-code empowers business and other stakeholders to be a part of the development process.
The result is whole-team or fusion-team collaboration that enables organizations to capitalize successfully on developer knowledge and business expertise. By pulling experts from business and IT to collaborate on cross-functional projects that deliver new applications, organizations can maximize the diverse knowledge and skills they possess.
“Developing something quickly and getting it in front of the business and asking, ‘Is this what you want' is super important. We get faster feedback and can act immediately upon it. Our business partners feel they are part of the process and more engaged with the development team.”
Voytek Janisz Senior Vice President of IT, AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.
Amtrust transforms the development experience with low-code
5. Quick and easy change and maintenance
Thanks to the reusability of components and modules, development teams don’t have to start each project from scratch or write hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Therefore, adapting and changing applications due to competition, economics, disruption, or the emergence of new opportunities is a fairly quick and easy process.
“A big part of our Digital Factory approach has been finding ways to reuse components and code across multiple apps. A great example is our authentication. As users have the same credentials across all university applications, we can reuse the base code here and modify it to suit the needs of each app.”
Sameer Jaleel Associate Chief Information Officer, Kent State University
Kent State University wins the battle against backlog
6. Lower barrier to entry and higher developer retention
Inexperienced developers can quickly build their first apps and understand step-by-step what they are doing. They see almost immediately how they can bring value. As a result, their ramp-up is much smoother, and they can quickly contribute to a high-performing team.
In addition, according to a recent study, developers are 58% more likely to be satisfied with their tools when using low-code technology than when just using traditional development. This motivation is key for organizations in a time of high developer turnover and tech talent shortage.
“The reskilling process helped us to lower our turnover and absenteeism by 20%. And the most important thing for me is, the IT guys feel part of the business. They’re being valued by their delivery directly to our end-customer.”
Andrew Buch Sampaio Global Director of Systems Engineering, Prosegur
Prosegur transforms its CX while reskilling its development team
7. Faster innovation
Low-code delivers speed and simplicity so junior developers and tech enthusiasts without a strong development background can build apps as if they were full-stack developers.
Just as importantly, it enables skilled developers to focus on more creative, less mundane aspects of programming. As a result, companies of any size can maximize their existing resources and deliver the solutions their business requires to stay competitive.
How SUEZ powered digital innovation to accelerate solutions for the circular economy
“Building new business propositions for the circular economy is an experimental process. That’s why we embraced low-code application development. We need to get to market with new digital solutions quickly and cost-effectively so we can test them with customers. Moreover, we need to refine and adjust them quickly, especially as we roll out to more organizations."
Antoine Le Feuvre CEO at SUEZ Circular Solutions
Adopting a low-code solution
One of the key low-code benefits is that it accelerates and removes the more tedious and complicated aspects of software development using visual development and automation. Thus, it helps organizations overcome many of the hurdles of traditional development.
The OutSystems low-code platform gives you the power to build custom market-leading applications. With accelerated development, flexibility, and integration, and a strong community and expert support, the platform allows developers to write custom code and integrate it into the applications built on the customer’s platform.
You can check out all the applications built with the OutSystems low-code platform or try the benefits of the platform by signing up for the free edition.
This page was brought to life by Forsyth's insights and expertise.
Low-code advantages: Frequently asked questions
A low-code platform is a software development tool that provides a visual language, drag-and-drop interface for building apps, along with pre-built components and templates.
Security varies by platform, but OutSystems offers robust security features that include user authentication, data encryption, and compliance with various data protection regulations. Explore the OutSystems platform security features.
To get started with low-code, explore the training for the OutSystems platform. The tutorials, webinars, and courses can help you understand the platform interface and functionalities.
Although the term “low-code” was first used by Forrester Research in 2014, the first low-code platform was created in 2001, with the launch of the first version of the OutSystems platform.
Low-code automation offers benefits such as increased efficiency, shorter development time, enhanced scalability, and streamlined operations.
Take a deep dive into the benefits of using a low-code automation solution
There are several benefits for no-code development. These advantages include faster development cycles, accessibility to non-technical users, reduced development costs, and seamless integration with popular tools.