Earlier a software development company relied on heavy application development processes and labor-intensive manual coding to develop robust, modern solutions. However, these days are gradually coming to an end. The inception of innovative automation technology, rising client expectations, demands from users who seek innovation, and scarcity of specialized developers has compelled the software development industry to look out for alternative approaches to deliver their services and products as well as stay digitally updated. This is where low-code development platforms come into the picture to address this problem.
How Low-Code Development Helps Software Developers
Low-code app development is a software development methodology that equips IT teams and individual developers to develop applications avoiding time-taking manual coding. Generally, a basic low-code platform encompasses a visual integrated development environment (IDE), connectors to different back-ends or services, a life cycle manager for applications, and a cohesive design-to-code system.
Leveraging these features and traits, low-code development platforms:
- Abstract away from the code behind complicated commands and actions
- Rationalize how projects are being innovated and distributed weekly, and not monthly
- Allow individual developers to create apps
Low-code development tools have the potential to break the mold and automate the entire software development process by offering reusable building blocks. These building blocks can easily be combined into a complete application. This enables both professionals and amateurs to manage huge volumes of projects faster than ever before. In today’s digital world when people expect over 500 million applications and digital services to be developed and deployed by 2023 (according to IDC FutureScape), the flexibility with low-code application development is very handy.
Low-code adoption with become so popular that 75% of the applications built across the globe will be developed using such tools. While these tools will not replace traditional software development, they deliver a simpler, modern, and faster approach to developing applications for a software development company.
Read more: Best AngularJs Development Tools for Web Application Development in 2022
Top 3 Advantages of Low-Code Development
Whether it is automating certain manual tasks, avoiding old development models such as waterfall methodology, or helping a beginner to create a prototype or flexible application, low-code application development offers numerous benefits.
Some of the top advantages of low-code software include:
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Even Non-tech People Can Assemble Innovative Projects
Low-code app development tools have emerged as game-changers. They reduce the need for professional coders as they offer essential components and building blocks to allow non-technical people to participate in full-cycle software development.
Around 80% of technology solutions and services will be built by non-technical people by 2024, according to a recent Gartner report. Sometimes when there is a huge demand for commercial software, new advanced solutions, and skilled developers, low-code development tools are ideal for citizen developers, designers, experienced developers, non-technical stakeholders, and others.
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Faster and Highly-optimized Development Cost
IT firms and clients expect software development companies to build and deliver their business applications within the shortest timeframe and with a minimum budget In this fast-paced digital world. Legacy business systems demand rapid modernization without a huge investment.
One of the main advantages of low-code app development platforms is that they allow people to build at scale without spending a large amount of money or time. Low-code tools can help build automation solutions, objective-critical systems, mobile apps, and many more.
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Redefining Traditional Software Development Cycle
Leveraging these automation solutions, citizen developers don’t need to worry about HTML or CSS, coding standards, scalability, page layout, screen sizes, or branding. Thanks to some low-code development platforms, you can cover everything from design to development as they generate production-ready code in the end. Both designers and developers can use a single platform that simultaneously:
- Helps them build solutions that are maintainable as well as scalable on cloud-native architecture.
- Modernizes and fosters their work
- Enhances collaboration and productivity
- Matches their workflow and skill levels
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Lower Maintenance Overhead
Low-code development is a perfect technique to reduce the burden of software maintenance by eliminating the day-to-day tedious work of development. Standardized, properly tested and ready-made components ensure that there are minimal bugs and integration issues present to address. By spending fewer efforts on maintenance, developers on the other hand can focus on innovative work that ensures greater business value in the long term.
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Increased Teams Productivity
Low-code development brings IT and business teams on the same platform so that both can address real issues impacting company success. Business teams have the liberty to create their own applications, without assigning them to developers. Taking away complex code improves access to more team members without worrying about skills, which improves productivity. This facilitates the generation and transformation of new ideas into reality more quickly.
Is Low-code Development the Future?
Low-code or No-code tools are quickly emerging as the next-generation prototyping solutions in the enterprise. It’s because they require no technical skills in legacy UX/visual designer-oriented systems. These tools allow you to create screen design using drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG design-time experience. It is as simple as creating a PowerPoint deck.
One main point of difference between a low-code tool and a traditional UX/visual design tool is that the former is developing a running application in the background, using real code, connected data, real screen interactions, etc. So, any team member with an idea can effectively design, without depending only on an experienced designer. No specialized skills are required to create tangible and real digital products while going beyond what a prototype can deliver simultaneously.
The future of low-code app development tools in the software development space will include connectors and adaptors to well-established design tools like Sketch, Adobe XD, etc. These connectors and adapters will allow the development team to use a design process and import designs, interactions, themes, and branding into low-code tools. This will save a considerable amount of time and money as team members don’t need to re-build screens that are already pixel-perfect.
While low-code development tools can’t fully replace the traditional software development processes and methodologies, it won’t be fully wrong to say that they are the future of software development.
Therefore, a software development company must start embracing these solutions to enhance team productivity and deliver digital products quickly to their clients.
