The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated digital transformation, and in the process, pushed more tech-driven work well beyond the bounds of data centers -- into executive suites, marketing departments, human resource offices, and even into the front lines. Business-side professionals with a minimum of development experience -- beyond creating spreadsheets -- suddenly had to become IT departments within their own home offices, not only troubleshooting network issues, but creating or downloading front-end apps and applications to help them in their jobs.
This new phase we've entered -- low-code and no-code, 2020s style -- shifts the relationship between IT and business professionals. In this Q&A, Sheryl Koenigsberg[1], head of global product marketing at Mendix[2], provided her insights on where the low-code and no-code movement has taken and will be taking us.
Q: In this time with most knowledge workers and managers working remotely, are end-users getting the IT support they need? Are end-users essentially on their own when it comes to leveraging IT capabilities? Are the IT professionals they depend on more consumed with remote infrastructure support issues?
Koenigsberg: "I don't envy anyone who is an IT worker right now. You're right, they are consumed with numerous challenges nobody planned for. We do see a rising interest among end-users to take matters into their own hands and solve some of their own digitalization problems. At the same time, IT has less time to help evaluate solutions for the business to use, less time to coach novice developers, and less time to oversee best practice deployment of new technologies. It's a pretty bad Catch-22 for IT teams right now."
Q: What's the professional developer perspective on low-code and no-code through this? Are they proactively urging greater end-user empowerment?