I am almost bumping on to this phrase Citizen Developer all the time I read something about Intelligent Automation. However, I have not shown much interest in the topic as it did not really make sense to me as I believe automation takes a wholistic approach to addresses wide range of problem that is solved at enterprise level. Today, many are creating a buzz around their automation platform as low code/no code platform… are they truly low/no code platforms and will they really help any knowledge worker to help in automating their work?
Yes, the wait is over, I decided to dive into the topic and understand it myself.
Let us unpack – Citizen Developer.
Who is a citizen developer? A typical non-technical/non-professional who can build applications for use by specific departments or for an enterprise.
You may see such definitions almost everywhere with a simple google search.
So, who is this non-technical/non-professional that we are referring to? In my view, these are knowledge workers who contribute to the functioning of any organization at any capacity.
For example, an employee who responds to customer emails, sales inquiries, generates some statistical analysis, data on demand, makes data flow from one system to another, acts based on rules and minimal judgement, convers structured/unstructured data and makes it suitable for system to understand, a representative who walks around the production floor to gather data etc.,
Did I just say anyone who is working for an organization? Yes, I did.
It sure is an overrated statement to say that anyone can develop an application to solve a problem. With this rise of low code platforms, it sure does bring in an inclusiveness where business users/knowledge workers themselves can take care of certain automation and leave the tough ones to the experts to solve. These low code platforms help the business users to introspect and relieve from some mundane to become more human.
As someone who wants to solve a problem or automate a process, there should be clear intent to learn the automation platform that suites the need. This certainly calls for hours of effort instilled in learning and understanding the automation platform. Talk to an expert if you need guidance.
Build knowledge of coding terminologies, as most of it is driven by visual drag and drop with contextual help in these platforms, it is not difficult to gain this knowledge.
Be it no code/low code platform a citizen developer should have bare minimum understanding of how to define a process which is the key to automate any capsule of work.
At the end of the day, if you are determined to make work better for you and your team, it is worth becoming a citizen developer by learning the required skills.
No platform works magic without a someone mapping the process. Spend sufficient time with the right intent to learn the platform and translate your learning into solving problems.
Here are couple of such leading platforms to start your citizen developer journey Automation Anywhere & UiPath. You may want to try it yourself or want to learn it structurally.
Either ways, feel free to drop a line.