The continuously growing functionality and popularity of No-Code and Low-Code platforms have significantly influenced who Citizen Developers are and what they currently do. Although at first glance it sounds like an independent job position, in practice the term “Citizen Developer” should be understood more as a set of skills.
Who exactly are Citizen Developers? Who first attempted to define this concept? What is the future of such responsibilities? We answer all these questions in the article below.
Citizen Developer – what does it mean and who introduced the term?
The first attempt to define the concept of Citizen Developer was made by the globally recognized American research and advisory company Gartner. The company has been specializing since 1979 in issues related to the strategic use of technology in business.
According to their definition, a Citizen Developer is a person who:
- creates business applications for their own use, for the company, or for specific departments
- uses tools and development environments that comply with IT and security department guidelines
- is part of a business unit and therefore does not report to or belong to the IT department
Citizen Developer – who exactly is this?
In simple terms, a Citizen Developer is someone who, despite not being a professional developer (i.e., without formal education in programming), creates their own applications, improvements, and tools using no-code and low-code platforms.
A good example includes people working as analysts, managers, or sales representatives who have acquired the knowledge needed to optimize internal processes. Thanks to modern no-code platforms that do not require programming knowledge, Citizen Developers are able to relieve IT departments of many tasks.
Considering the long-term high demand for software developers, it is easy to understand how a gap emerged that “citizen programmers” are now trying to fill on their own initiative.
What does a Microsoft Citizen Developer do?
A Microsoft Citizen Developer is a term used for people who build tools and business applications using Microsoft Power Apps.
Similar to no-code platforms, pre-built application templates are modified there using drag-and-drop functionality. As a result, even without any knowledge of programming languages, it is possible to quickly and easily create fully tailored business applications.
However, it is worth noting that Microsoft Power Apps is classified as a low-code platform, which significantly increases the level of knowledge required from a Citizen Developer.