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Low-code solution for complex, high-performance systems? Sounds impossible. Or is it?

There is a stereotype that low-code platforms create software that is slow and limited in functionality. As with any stereotype, there is some truth to that, but not much. To find out what the reality is, at first, we need to start with how high-performance systems are built using general-purpose programming languages. Let’s get to the bottom of this and then confront it with what low-code has to offer. Is custom programming really such a great advantage compared to low-code solutions? Or is it a drawback? What makes software “slow”? What does "slow" really mean in terms of a typical enterprise application? By "typical" I mean a 3-layer classic: Web UI + service backend + databases. "Slow" can come from: Database queries being far from optimal - missing indexes, outdated statistics, bad join strategies etc. Unnecessary queries - missing caches or “chatty” algorithms assuming that fetching more data from database or external services is free and i...

Who is a Citizen Developer?

The "Citizen Developer" term seems to be almost as popular as low-code/no-code platforms themselves. At the first sight, its definition is quite simple: The person from business department (not IT) who has basic IT knowledge and develops business applications But it is a very broad description. Let’s go deeper and wonder: Who exactly are such people? Where do they come from? What is their background? I had a lot of discussions with my mates and clients about that. Here are the insights. The most obvious candidates to become Citizen Developers are business owners of IT systems within the organization. They are responsible for implemented solutions. Regardless of whether the apps are out-of-the-box or custom implementations, the owners are forced to understand - on general technical level - what is "under the hood". Such experience gives them perfect background to get familiar with low-code tools and build software solutions ...

What is low-code?

If you are drawn to this article, you are probably trying to find out what hides behind "low-code" phrase. I’ll try to provide you with an explanation. According to wikipedia: "A low-code development platform (LCDP) provides a development environment used to create application software through a graphical user interface instead of traditional hand-coded computer programming. A low-coded platform may produce entirely operational applications or require additional coding for specific situations." So, what does it really mean? From my perspective the actual meaning of this definition is not focused on the way you use a tool to build an IT solution, but the competences you need to have to do so. "Traditional" approach to software creation requires knowledge of one (or more) programming languages as well as complex development frameworks. With LCDP you just need general competence in IT. It’s enough to build a complete system, in most of the cases: without writing ev...

Tag: low code

Low-code solution for complex, high-performance systems? Sounds impossible. Or is it?

Who is a Citizen Developer?

What is low-code?