Value driven planning and low code platforms, DevOps Edition

Increasing customer expectations have pushed business innovation into the clouds. We live and work in a world where digital customers expect an always on, always upgraded and always personalized digital experience across a multitude of devices and channels. These increasing expectations are forcing companies to move their digital transformations further into the clouds. Over the last 10 years, most of the custom app development has been pro-code based. But by 2025, over 70% of all new apps developed will be based on low-code or no code enterprise technologies, according to Gartner.

Low code is not as new as it seems. A good example of this is Excel. Anyone who has ever worked in a spreadsheet, created a pivot table, or entered a formula has done low code no code. Over the years, low code has seeped into just about every industry, though it’s been more about completing smaller specific tasks—like adding a column of numbers or putting a picture on a website.

Now, low code platforms are emerging. These allow organizations to develop entire software programs based on their own specific needs.

Without a low code platform, the impacts are large. Businesses delaying innovation can have a massive impact on the broader company. With this complexity to deliver at speed and quality across many different roles within DevOps – the impact is poor productivity, loss of business and missed business opportunities.

With low code, you can take any problem and create functionality using clicks and configuration to solve the problem.  

Here’s how to plan and deliver value in a low code DevOps environment.

Strategically align teams to create a culture of low code

When we talk about low-code platforms, the people using them are very diverse. Don’t leave your professional developers or business analysts out of the equation. 

IDC estimates that 40% of the population of low-code tools users are professional developers. Low code brings in democratization. There are traditional pro-coders coming alongside the business users such as business analysts to create a whole new dynamic. 

The combination of functional and technical roles working together as a team helps incorporate all parts of the business when creating features. This can significantly increase collaboration between business development, IT, support, and operations. 

For companies to experience the benefit of low-code platforms, companies must adopt a low-code philosophy. This transition to low-code technology requires buy-in at all levels of company culture. The organization needs to engage in complete digital transformation, complete with the roles and responsibilities of their team to the organization’s tech stack.

Provide value and speed with strategic planning

With the growing demand from the business to build software faster, how do you ensure that the teams are delivering the most value without sacrificing speed?

Planning is a critical DevOps concept and there’s much more to it than simply prioritizing work. The output that dev teams produce relies on how effective the work is planned. These plans should include portfolio planning, feature prioritization, gathering requirements, user story writing, refinement, stakeholder approval, and sprint planning. 

A few necessary questions must be asked as you move forward. Find out if the right user stories are being worked on, and if the tasks or needs are well defined. It’s equally important to find out if the planning meets the needs of the customer. 

The best way to plan work is based on value, whether it’s allocating work to be developer-led or backlog-driven, based on user feedback or time available. 

Conclusion

When it comes to DevOps, iteratively delivering work is only half of the battle. Everything your team does must start with effective planning because no matter how good your teams are at building and delivering, if they aren’t delivering the right things, the business will suffer. 

IT teams impact overall business results and low code platforms can help you move faster as an organization. IT teams may be small compared to the overall size of the company, but they have a massive impact on the business and how it operates. The more effective IT teams can be in planning features that provide value to end users, the more likely the business is to thrive.

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