No-Code App Development: 5 Benefits of Using No-Code Platforms in 2022

There has been a lot of talk about no-code app development in recent years in the dev community. First of all, is no-code going to replace human developers? Of course not. But is no-code development viable enough to bring certain benefits to the table for business owners, dev teams, and companies in certain industries? Definitely.

I believe it’s important to talk about no-code development as a supplementary process in app development, but also as a standalone solution some companies can use to achieve results quickly. I believe that no-code development is quickly taking over the app development industry, as no-code platforms become more accessible and easy to use for citizen developers. This is also backed by the fact that by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by enterprises will use no-code or low-code technologies.

Here are some of the possible benefits of no-code development for enterprises, dev teams, individual developers, and other departments in an organization.

Reduce time to market

Companies, dev teams, consumers - everyone wants the app to hit the market as quickly as possible with minimal to no delays. While delays are sometimes inevitable due to a variety of factors outside of your control, there’s no denying that shortening the overall time to market is an important goal.

Reducing time to market is important for individual developers as much as it’s instrumental for development studios, publishers, and businesses in general. Not only does this reduce the overall financial waste, but it can also have a positive impact on employee retention over the long term, cross-team collaboration, and more.

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For business leaders, no-code development can impact their bottom line, but for dev teams, operations, and others, it can help speed up the process and automate numerous tasks. If implemented properly through careful project planning and collaboration between dev teams, operations, and other departments, no-code development can result in faster TTM, lower financial waste, and higher developer satisfaction.

Improve collaboration and communication

One of the reasons why no-code development has become so popular over the years is because it allows management, operations, and other teams to join in on the process. Traditionally, app development is a process handled only by the development team under the direction and guidance of team leads and operations managers who communicate the directives of the upper management.

This creates a silo around the dev team and keeps the process somewhat of a mystery to anyone who doesn’t have coding experience or any relevant experience in app development. With no-code platforms, however, business leaders can increase team productivity by making the app development process more transparent for all teams.

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Everyone can contribute to the project, as no-code platforms don’t require any prior coding experience. This might be a nuisance for some developers who just want to work in peace, but on an organizational level, it can boost collaboration and communication.

Reduce the risk of error

The risk of human error will always be present in the app development process. That said, no-code development aims to minimize that risk through ease of use and numerous complementary features. The biggest selling point for no-code platforms is, of course, the simplicity with which people can create apps without the need for any coding experience.

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It’s a double-edged sword, yes, but when it comes to reducing errors and keeping the development process moving forward, no-code can be a game-changer for businesses that don’t want to invest in full-scale app development. What’s more, now that no-code is delving into Web 3 as well, business leaders are looking for solutions that allow them to reduce expenses and effort across the board.

I think it’s important to note, however, that no-code in itself does not reduce risk, rather it’s the implementation, monitoring, and optimization of no-code platforms that can reduce risk through proper management. Still, managers and operations leads need to invest in many of the same processes that DevOps relies on to reduce risk as much as possible:

• Daily testing
• Detailed reporting
• Accountability
• Daily incremental progress
• Real-time and daily feedback

Iterate and optimize quickly

Another big selling point of no-code nowadays is the ability to pivot quickly and stay flexible throughout the app development process. This might not benefit the developers all that much, but it can be invaluable to other departments like marketing and sales, as well as organizations as a whole. Pivoting means changing your target market or audience, which you can do on the go with no-code or low-code development.

This allows organizations to stay flexible, particularly when you’re trying to manage your workforce efficiently and especially when doing so remotely. Traditionally, pivoting would demand that you involve the dev team in the change and re-align the whole development process to fit the new market.

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Using a no-code platform, however, means that you can move straight into optimizing the development process for the new demographic without incurring additional cost or wasting time. For companies looking to stay flexible, this is an important feature, but for dev teams, this can also bring certain benefits to the table.

Programmers can utilize the visual interface to better collaborate and communicate with other remote teams and remote developers, which allows them to make changes quickly. They can also use the no-code platform to keep the upper management and non-dev teams up to speed without wasting time on lengthy status reports or manual data visualization.

Again, I believe it’s important to take everything that no-code brings with a grain of salt, and remember that this, like any other perk, is only possible with meticulous project management. After all, no-code development platforms aren’t an out-of-the-box solution like many would like to believe - they are tools you can use to achieve better results if you use them wisely.

Bridge the gap between dev and other teams

Finally, I think that one of the biggest myths on employee engagement is that you can keep people engaged without a solid knowledge base. What this means is that business leaders will often think they can keep their non-dev staff engaged during the app development process even though they have no idea what’s going on.

Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/visible-confusion

Obviously, the lack of knowledge and experience in programming will hinder their ability to follow along, which is why no-code is so popular with non-dev teams. It makes it easy to follow along and participate. No-code can help developers deal with many of their frustrations simply by bridging that gap between dev and other teams.

Supported by a knowledge-sharing culture in the workplace, I believe this can be a good way for everyone to stay involved in the project and feel like their contribution matters.

To sum up

There has been a lot of talk about no-code development in recent years . Rather than viewing no-code as something that will replace developers forever, I think we should look at it as a way to bring more value to dev teams, companies, and consumers moving forward.