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Michelle Tackabery
Guest
Low-code development can accelerate application development and deployment.
Creating apps quickly and efficiently is always an attractive concept. One approach is to develop with a low-code platform, but what exactly is that? Aside from speed, this new approach to development can make it easier to maintain and update your mobile apps on a go-forward basis.
These days, traditional hand-coding methods for software development are too slow to keep up with the rising demands of consumers. If companies want to demonstrate innovation and relevance, they need to accelerate the creation, setup, and deployment of applications. Using low-code platforms, modern-day software developers have the tools they need to move nimbly from initial idea to first release and beyond.
Understanding Low-Code Development
Leading research analysts at Forrester defined the low-code concept in a recent report discussing new development platforms being used for customer-facing applications. It was their assertion that if companies are going to succeed in winning, serving, and retaining customers, they are going to have to respond quickly to customer feedback after initial software releases.
Low-code excels at this, as well as quickly moving an idea to market in the first place. Standardized visual tools allow developers to streamline the creation of forms and user experiences, but they also accommodate a single point of control for app maintenance and updates. Rob Marvin, online and social media editor at SD Times, adds:
“n these centralized environments, developers can merge design, development and deployment under the same platform, allowing not only for responsively designed Web and mobile applications, but also the freedom to experiment based on the customer or enterprise requirements.”
Key Benefits of Low-Code Development
For general-purpose applications, low-code platforms offer increased reliability and stability by taking advantage of a single, tested codebase. By automating routine tasks, developers are able to exercise their talents and skills by creating additional functionality and more sophisticated user experiences that would otherwise be considered nice-to-have extravagances.
Redefining rapid application development, low-code platforms reduce the coding effort required for many tasks, including:
- Adding, enabling, or disabling modules and features within an app (while still maintaining core functionality)
- Building once and deploying anywhere (and everywhere)
- Making modifications to the data model without the need for complex scripts
- Easily modifying app workflow by adding new events, statuses, or paths
- Adding or updating forms via drag and drop
The emergence of cloud-based environments is a significant bolster for low-code development platforms, offering the kind of centralized hosting and performance muscle that will help them truly shine.
This move toward centralized storage has other added benefits, such as providing developers with options for managing data and the devices accessing it, regardless of platform.
Meeting the needs and demands of your customers is important. Doing it quickly and skillfully, ahead of your competitors, is critical if you want to be seen as credible and able to succeed at the current speed of IT.
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