An era of accelerated digital transformation has begun as organisations across the world have embraced a host of digital tools, technologies, and processes to thrive in the new normal. Regional governments have recognised the significant role that technologists will play in advancing digital economies, an excellent example of which is the UAE’s launch of its National Program for Coders which aims to build a local talent pool of 100,000 coders. In turn, this is expected to support the launch of 1,000 new digital companies in the country.
Given that the UAE is expected to experience a $50 billion digital skills gap by 2030, it’s easy to assume that these 100,000 new coders will provide much-needed reinforcement to understaffed IT teams. After all, this has traditionally been where the software development function resides within an organisation.
Changing the status quo
Evolving digital paradigms warrant a fundamental rethinking of how businesses approach application development. With the increased pace at which operations are being digitised, customer and employee experiences are now deeply dependent on the technology platforms in use. Retailers have implemented digital interface and visualisation technologies to enhance the customer experience and provide contactless buying through mobile and web platforms. On the other end, educational institutions have scaled their tech stack to enable staff and students to work remotely and stay productive.
If the development of these business-critical apps is entrusted primarily to technical staff, these digital experiences are then at risk of underwhelming, or worse still, frustrating users. It’s incorrect to assume that without sufficient guidance from their business counterparts, technology practitioners have the same understanding and insight as the end users of these applications. After all, an HR application could boast the highest security, reliability, and scalability, but if it doesn’t effectively solve the problem the HR head or teams are facing, it will do little to deliver on its intended objectives. This disconnect between line of business managers and IT teams could ultimately result in the wave of IT investments we are witnessing in the UAE yielding only suboptimal results.
Organisations that truly consider themselves ‘digital-first’ will recognise that this mentality must permeate far beyond the bounds of the IT department. Indeed, being digital-first is only possible through the democratisation of development as this paves the way for the subject matter experts and actual end users to lead the creation of functional digital applications.
Creating a culture of collaborative development
The first step to empowering business users to become ‘coders’ is to eliminate the technical barriers to software development. After all, it is the steep learning curve to mastering coding languages that presents the greatest hurdle. What business users and process owners really need are Low-code and No-code development platforms that replace complex code with intuitive visual development environments, with a drag & drop interface, that will let them create full-fledged applications. This approach is so effective that Gartner predicts by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of all application development activity.
But it isn’t just technical impediments that must be overcome. Historically, any change to the status quo has been susceptible to resistance. IT teams that have been the champions of innovation are likely to be reluctant to relinquish this title. Unless correctly managed, the democratisation of development could create a rift between IT and business heads.
The key to addressing this is to foster collaboration and clearly define responsibilities. Citizen developers, being closer to the problem, can create the solution they need quickly, while IT can focus on deeper architectural concerns. Citizen developers understand the challenges the business faces in the real world. Harnessing that knowledge and empowering those individuals to create and deliver applications helps organisations to avoid traditional bottlenecks and get things done more efficiently.
The success of the Middle East’s homegrown tech unicorns such Souq.com, Careem, and Kitopi demonstrates that there is an established regional framework for digital companies to springboard into the global arena. With such a conducive environment already in place, all start-ups & enterprises need is the right technology platform that will enable every employee to significantly impact business outcomes. In an era where technology is clearly impacting profits and market position, creating a culture of coding will differentiate industry pioneers from organisations that would rather sit by the side-lines.
