The Low-Code Renaissance Continues
I have been a fan of new ways of capturing intent and converting it to code for a long time. Much of programming work is repetitive and tedious, building the same scaffolding over and over, with only snippets of original coding required. Especially for business apps.
Most businesses are fundamentally remarkably similar: they make something or offer a service, sell it to someone, ship it and support it. This means that the software required to support those businesses is also broadly similar, with many data elements in common, and analogous processes. They are not, however, identical which means that some customization is required. Sometimes special occasions require a specific application for just a short time. Or productivity demands a tightly-focused process.
Custom development of such applications by a central IT function or an external supplier has often been too expensive and too slow to be practical. Low-code tools change these economics in two ways: first they enable non-specialists to build the bulk of the application, and secondly, they provide or generate all the repetitive scaffolding code automatically.
This week Plant an App showed me their app development tool, which is essentially targeted at enabling the rapid construction of the kind of web apps that businesses require. What was particularly impressive with Plant an App, was the fluidity of the experience, and how it pre-builds many of the items that you are most likely to need and makes it a matter of a click to get between different views. What I mean by this is that you can define a typical object, let’s say a customer record, and not only does it build a list view automatically, but it prepares the editing dialog box too.
Editing all of the above is also very simple, with easy drag-and-drop sizing and rearranged of fields on a logical grid. No worries about physical placement or specific sizing: everything snaps quickly and easily into place, unlike many form editing tools. The Plant an App tool has many other attractive visual features, including an attractive and easy to use process modeling tool. This was clearly designed so as not to scare off less-technical people by overwhelming them with options.
While the name Plant an App is frankly odd, the tool enables growing a crop of microservices. This is made possible through automation of API generation. Clearly a user would have to have a basic understanding of what APIs are and the terminology involved, but the tool creates all the structures. For example, for each data type involved, it auto generates a GET end point.
So far I’ve talked about no-code capabilities, but Plant an App has neat ways of handling code snippets, including using C# via Razor in addition to then normal JavaScript. Data connections to SQL Server make this a tool that is useful for Microsoft-friendly enterprise IT teams. ODBC is also supported for other data sources. Code snippets can be easily added throughout applications, although one of the most common use cases — data entry validation— comes with a rich palette of predefined options. With these capabilities Plant an App offers a full spectrum from small, personal apps up to large-scale company-wide or public-facing development projects.
Charging only by the number of apps developed, the licensing model is also designed to support a wide range of uses. This per-app pricing is critical for growth — any kind of per-user charging becomes an app tax that discourages the creation of a rich portfolio. Not only does per-user licensing it cost actual money, it costs in time and effort requesting approval for additional budget as an app grows in popularity. This makes it a success tax too. Per-app pricing, on the other hand, allows the project sponsor to offer a fixed, predictable cost to their finance colleagues.
Plant an App is a example of the new generation of tools that has been designed for use by teams, with different tools for different skills. Aurachain is another. This makes Plant an App ideal for business projects, where users who understand the process and core requirements can kick off development, use existing enterprise data and APIs, and call in specialist skills when needed. This is how I see the future of enterprise software development, maximizing velocity and reducing rework through continuous involvement from all the relevant stakeholders.
Independent research, not sponsored, confirming my observations from last year.
