Digital transformation takes a team, but many IT decision-makers say the biggest challenge to digitally transform their business is a lack of software developers.
That’s where the power of citizen development comes in–with no-code/low-code platforms, anyone can build applications without software expertise, significantly faster, and at a fraction of the cost. But first, you need to learn how to use the tools you have. You need a system in place to oversee the environment, mitigate risk, and unlock the full potential of citizen development. And your citizen developers must understand how to best operate in that system.
So, whether you’re looking to teach yourself or train your team, Project Management Institute (PMI) has launched a multi-channelled suite of educational resources with global industry standards, best practices, and governance for organisations – seeking to implement and scale citizen development practices.
Citizen development platforms use low-code/no-code platforms, which enable non-technical, non-specialist employees to create apps, software solutions, and even enterprise-grade applications without having to learn to code. The emergence of citizen development promises to make application and software development significantly faster and less costly, while accelerating organisations’ ability to achieve outcomes more quickly and increase productivity.
The following solutions in a planned suite of offerings are available now:
* The PMI Citizen Developer Foundation online course is an e-learning training program that provides an introduction to and delivers governance around citizen development while outlining best practices in citizen development methodologies.
* The PMI Citizen Developer Practitioner online course is for the “doers.” It provides professionals the tools and methodologies needed to efficiently create effective and scalable applications using low-code and no-code platforms in order to solve the problems organisations face.
* The PMI Citizen Developer Partner Programme is an exclusive global ecosystem of low-code/no-code vendors and delivery organisations and provides partners with the opportunity to become powered by PMI, by achieving and showcasing the PMI Stamp of Approval. It demonstrates they align with PMI’s global vendor-agnostic standards, guardrails, and best practices. With three partner tiers to choose from, there are options designed to meet the needs of any organisation.
* The Handbook for Creators and Changemakers is a centralised resource that will help individuals and enterprises understand best practices for implementing citizen development within an organisation at scale.
Gartner predicts that low-code/no-code citizen development will be responsible for more than 65% of application-development activity by 2024 and estimates that the number of active citizen developers will be four times that of professional developers by 2023. To help professionals and organisations alike upskill to meet this demand in a secure, scalable, and customisable way, PMI launched the suite of solutions and continues to add new offerings to help ensure they are ready and able to succeed in this new digital landscape.
George Asamani, business development leader for sub-Saharan Africa PMI, says: “Today, businesses across Africa have accelerated the adoption of digital transformation and as a result, new work ecosystems are emerging. By empowering changemakers with non-technical background with the right skills and tools to build low code/no code software solutions and develop apps, Citizen Development can help an organisation explore the full potential of digital transformation without burdening the IT department. With the PMI Citizen Developer resources, we aim to guide developers and organisations in taking full advantage of the benefits of Citizen Development, while maintaining IT governance and security compliance.”
According to the BRIGHTLINE Strategic Transformation report, 93% of high-performing organisations agree that clearly defined frameworks and tools are integral to the strategic transformation process. To help ensure that organisations are prepared and able to adapt to this new way of working, PMI has leveraged its unparalleled expertise in the project management space to help changemakers and organisations excel and thrive by establishing best practices, guardrails, and risk assessments to harness the full power of citizen development.
According to Sam Sibley, PMI global head of PMI Citizen Developer: “PMI Citizen Developer is a catalyst for faster change and enables a hyper agile way of working, which unlocks significant value for the global market.
“Organisations who can take an idea and design, build, test, and deploy applications in a matter of days or weeks instead of months or years, enables teams and organisations to deliver new solutions to market faster, drive operational efficiencies, and capitalise on new revenue streams. Organisations that invest in citizen development now will be at a major competitive advantage in the years to come.”