Lunch-Boxes of Code: And Not Yet Disposable

INDIA: At first, you are tempted to compare them to chewing-gums. Fun, quick and easy to dispose of.

Who thought that code can come in that flavor too one day? All wrapped, full of fast juice, colored, shrunk and tasty at that!

But no, they are making more bubbles than those pocket treats. So what is a low-code platform? Hmmm,

The IT equivalent of a ready-to-cook Dosa or pancake batter?

The programming cousin of just-pin-it neckties?

The tech-cousin of the lunchbox you bring from your own place?

May be, something from the Ikea corridors that corresponds with the dark alleys of code-making?

Ok, Instant; Not-so-knotty, and DIY-ish. Get that.

But there’s still got to be a better answer.

What if we thumb through some pages of this research trove titled ‘The Fractured, Fertile Terrain of Low-Code application platforms’ that came out in January 2016?

Low-code platforms - an important way for technology management and enterprise architecture pros to quickly deliver software to win, serve, and retain customers and to keep that software evolving - yes, that's how this deep-dive assessment by Forrester introduces the new kid on the block.

More name-plates follow. One can also understand low-code platforms as software environments that speed development and delivery of new apps by changing two dimensions of traditional platforms, such as Java and .NET

So instead of the usual rigmarole or recipe of baking a sturdy business app, this is what happens here.

Shove away programming language and instead pick a declarative development tool, a domain language, WYSIWYG user experience (UX) definition, flow diagramming, and visual data modelin etc. As long as the tools fit the target applications, an application development and delivery (AD&D) pro can shape up custom apps and that too many times faster (than a programming language scenario) with a low-code platform.

All a code-jockey’s gibberish? How does this wonk-talk apply to what matters to us lesser (concerned)-mortals?

What if someone told you that you can take all that Shadow-IT mood (or that extreme 'I don’t need anyone, I am good on my own' swag, if you prefer it that way) a notch higher and deeper by finally getting rid of that one thing that IT peeps have and you, the marketing whiz, or the Finance bloke, don’t,

The Code!

Yes, there is stuff like a low-code platform out on the shelves now, just like your ready-to-eat cutlet packet. And pretty accessible freemium models or free or low-cost self-service offerings without those big upfront financial commitments typical of enterprise software! Yes, the DIY world has finally moved beyond lumberjacks and pottery classes.

There’s more. This phenomenon allows fast, fluid, instantly-pluggable applications to run for that business need sitting and staring at your desk and lets you tackle that with as much ease as it lets architects, developers, and their business partners test a business idea in a working app, gain feedback, and iterate toward a finished product at a pace like never before.

Categories vary – they can be general-purpose, process app, database app, request-handling, or mobile-first app platforms. But what they dish out on the table elicits a general ‘Whoa’. They speed up application delivery, application updates, and also put testing and vetting of new business ideas on a fiercely fast track; hence, spurring innovation and optimization.

Now isn’t that a open-sesame moment for closet developers who have been lurking around under the masks of non-IT crowd? Citizen developers couldn’t have asked for a better time to bring out that party confetti and pop those code-corks out.

After all, to a reasonable extent, many low-code options are delivered with the very idea to let a non-pro create self-contained, relatively simple applications without having to write any code. These platforms come with platform APIs and adapters that make it straightforward to incorporate them into a broader platform strategy. And the very element of they being a ‘platform’ and not a ‘tool’ helps them cover many aspects of applications (management, lifecycle, deployment features etc) and multiple scenarios.

Some beer cans can make their way around enterprise CXOs too now. Look at low-code platforms as the new-found Swiss Knife on the tough terrains of digital economies and one gets the drift.

It’s the age where new, spot-on, and quick customer experiences can make the split-second difference between winners and losers. Quick, being the operative word, no one can complain about a tool that empowers to create fast digital products, and then test them equally fast thus allowing decisions of keep-or-drop to be made swiftly enough.

Enterprises used to either outsource the application development baggage or hire shoulders of programmers or rely on off-the-shelf, pre-built variety. As methodologies like agile, lean and SCRUM have swept their way inside programming world, the time and hand-coding consumed in a development work have changed beyond recognition.

Low-Code platforms, as Forrester’s report spells out, are being used by companies to visually configure new applications and speed up development as well as real-time feedback on the resulting applications’ functionality. Plus, now companies, specially the digitally-postured ones, can validate ideas and customer requirements before wasting precious resources on features and functionality that customers may not value. This self-service kitchen finally helps companies to clear lengthy backlogs for delivering new apps.

They can, on top of all this, translate successful prototypes into production-grade applications to deploy across a large number of employees and customers.

Ok, before we get all woozy here, wait, where are the asterisks? They’ve got to be around, somewhere, tucked away neatly. Where?

Microwave’s conking off

If someone has to actually get a grip on the potential of these platforms and assess them in clarity beyond all the hype, there are unpleasant questions that will have to be towed (specially when stuff like RAD and aPaaS is in the air as well) – you know around performance, sophistication, the other side of Shadow-IT, plumbing work on integration, security, governance, enterprise-scale readiness, and friendliness with production-environments etc.

Also, would such platforms be able to haul beyond immediate pain-points to long term business value, at an enterprise level?

Serious details would have to follow – as to integrating them with other applications and databases; scale levels of an enterprise or writing custom-algorithms.

Hair-splitting aside, we try to take a broad picture from someone who has his ears closely perched on this new ground. John R. Rymer, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals at Forrester takes the issues of integration and security head on. “Integration is always a pain, and often requires custom coding.

As to governance, that’s a mystery for most organizations. "Governance can't be too heavy handed, but also can't be absent. People are working out the best approaches as we speak.”

Ask him if they can go beyond short term pain resolution and he gives an earnest take. “I just wish more people adopting these products had real strategies to use them.”

Security should come up as a relevant worry-line next.

Low-code platforms are used by organisations who want to quickly build some application and depending upon the outcome fine tune it to develop more sophisticated and complex outcomes, explains Surendra Singh, Country Director, Forcepoint before he unlocks the caution-box.

“However, there are potential problems with applications that are built very rapidly using low-code platforms as they can cause serious security issues or compliance problems especially if these are customer facing applications that use customer data.”

Rymer, too, reckons that security is always an issue, particularly for the cloud options. “Some clients are still worried that public cloud services are insecure (they're not), but the real issue is both tech community and legal/compliance pros understanding how these platforms enable security and privacy.”

Singh advises that one has to measure risks and put applications through multiple security checks before they are widely used by employees. “Importantly, a comprehensive data security approach should be put in place to ensure that the customer data and sensitive information of the organization is not stolen by way of insider threat or through a compromised user.”

But that’s not all that one has to suss out for low-code platforms. As always, there’s more chaff to the wheat.

The After-Taste of Instant-Coffee

Despite the increasing interest, this is still an early-stage market, Rymer lets on.

As to whether it will shake the Rogue IT box again, he opines that it is up to the customer. “These platforms can be managed by IT; they are not random tools like Access and Excel. The customer needs to step up to that opportunity.”

Disposable apps are part of every portfolio; and always have been: Rymer

Now, with such platform around, are we actually entering an age of disposable apps or no-code soon? If yes, would that be a utopia or a dystopia or Kenopsia?

Rymer dismisses No-code as a silly marketing term. “We don't use it to discuss this category. Of course, there are some apps that can be built without coding, but they tend to be very limited in scope.”

He feels that disposable apps are part of every portfolio; and always have been. "Disposable" is perhaps too pejorative a term, as he quips here. “Better: Experiments (try out ideas; dispose of ideas that fail or show little value). Transient (apps with a limited life -- e.g. during a marketing campaign -- or built to solve a one-time requirement -- e.g. fixing a compliance problem by gathering data and/or attestations.” He suggests some re-christening here.

Turns out that either ways, it would not be too discreet to ignore the risks that low-code platforms can tag along.

For one, their undisciplined use can create a mess -- with too many apps, duplication, poor designs, no development conventions, no architecture, no governance.Then there is the extravagance of underutilization. More so when low-code platforms are adopted without a strategy for adoption, or for fit with other application development investments and methods, the result could be one or two apps getting built but the full value not being realized.

And then, there is the dreaded monster - Misapplication. Customer chooses a product ill-suited to the most important application scenarios. The Result? Too much coding to fill gaps.

Albeit, in a twisted way, these questions around Low-code platforms get us closer to defining them in a less-simple but more-precise way.

They are the IT counterpart of sous-vide cooking. To get the original recipe right, a lot of it has to come together smoothly and with exceptional timing – the boiling, the ingredients, the preservatives – everything. So much remains to be handled well.

Till the instant Dosa tastes as good as a freshly-fermented one, there’s time. We guess.