I consider that technological skills are essential for the development of new applications and software, but from my point of view, the most important requirement for a successful citizen development effort is a spirit of collaboration, that is, creating a synergy between business and technology.
By the latter I mean that members of an organization, regardless of their area of expertise, have the skills and knowledge necessary to develop applications and software with little or no coding experience.
In this way, the door is opened for these, or better known as citizen developers, to join professional IT developers with the purpose of creating software and applications necessary to improve the business.
It is a fact that companies do not have enough specialized IT personnel and that there is a significant demand for them. In Mexico alone and as indicated by the Digital Talent 2020 study by the technology consulting firm Everis, 6 out of 10 companies face difficulties in filling digital vacancies since there is a shortage of professionals with the necessary skills for these positions.
Therefore, the citizen development It offers the opportunity to companies and professionals from other areas such as administration or finance, to create applications without software experience, much faster and at a fraction of the cost, while acting as a pressure valve for this talent crisis.
It allows IT to “outsource” certain development work, reducing such projects in the pipeline. All of the above allow companies to move forward with their development efforts instead of waiting for IT to catch up. In this way it is created synergy between business and technology making both parties more agile and yielding higher profits.
Now, in my experience, companies require appropriate actions to ensure that these efforts are aligned with the organization’s IT strategy and governance policies. These policies should address issues such as:
1. The data, that is, which ones are going to be used, where they will come from, the place to store them and their privacy. Security that involves protecting information, applications and data from cyber attacks.
2. Avoid duplicating costs and leverage existing IT vendor relationships.
3. And finally, ensure that the application is aligned with the organization’s quality and system standards.
To achieve these three points, leadership among all the departments of an organization is necessary, together with the IT department, and thus provide strategic and integrated guidelines to implement said citizen development initiatives and maintain their supervision.
Also to offer advice when the time comes to decide which projects to undertake considering their technical complexity and risk.
To carry out these actions, tools are needed that allow the organization to continue moving forward and also decide which projects fall under IT supervision and which do not. One of my recommendations is to train in courses such as the PMI Citizen Developer Practitioner.