Guide to Low-Code Development: Demystifying Low-Code Application Delivery

When starting a low-code project, developers or dev teams go through 7 steps:

At this stage, the developer or team checks if the project is viable and defines the requirements.

Here, you create the application’s data schema, entity structure, relationships, constraints, and dependencies.

Here, you design the application’s interface, forms, pages, views, user roles, and security.

At this stage, you define and configure the application workflows and business logic.

This stage is about integrating third-party services.

This stage is about quality assurance before and after deployment.

Here the developer gathers user and stakeholder feedback, makes adjustments, or adds new features and the application goes into the next development cycle as needed.

Choosing a Low-Code Platform: An important step that can happen before the project starts or after requirements gathering is choosing the low-code platform. Selecting a low-code platform depends on project requirements and involves looking at multiple sources, trying out different low-code tools, estimating costs, and engaging with professional developers in the low-code community through forums, tutorials, and webinars to get insights and support.

Several factors are assessed when reviewing low-code application platforms, but you always start with identifying project and business needs, problems, and user requirements.

Includes gathering user data, information on available resources, and the scope of the application. Ultimately, the decision on the low-code platform depends on the collaborative needs of the team, the roles of individual members, and the budget constraints.

Low-code platforms are then evaluated on the following:

• Graphical user interface: Look at the features that represent the front end of the platform and how you interact with it.
   
• Interoperability with external services and data sources: Check the platform’s ability to connect to external services like Dropbox, Zapier, SharePoint, and Office 365 and connect to various data sources for form and report creation.
   
• Security: Check features like authentication mechanisms, security protocols, and user access control infrastructure.
   
• Collaborative development: Review the models of collaboration (online and offline) for developers to work from different locations to design applications together.
   
• Reusability: Focus on the mechanisms provided by the low-code platform to reuse existing assets like pre-defined templates, pre-built dashboards, built-in forms, or reports.
   
• Scalability: Look at the platform’s ability to scale applications based on the number of active users, data traffic, and storage capacity.
   
• Business logic: See the platform’s capabilities to define the application’s business logic which may include a business rules engine, graphical workflow editor, and API for inter-application communication.
   
• Application Build: Evaluate how the application is built, whether through code generation or model-at-runtime. The former generates the application’s source code from specified models for deployment and the latter interprets models to manage the application’s runtime execution.
   
• Deployment: Look at the mechanisms to deploy the application including publishing to app stores and deployment to local or cloud infrastructure.
   

Many sites feature a comparison of different low-code development platforms. Here is our list:

Works much like a spreadsheet, letting users build mobile, web, and desktop applications without coding. It is often placed as one of the top low-code platforms.

This platform is very well-known for its fast development, scalability, and extensive features.

Known for strong team collaboration tools, fast cycles of development, and vast integration features, making it perfectly suitable for complex projects.

This platform provides extremely easy connectivity to Microsoft's suite of services, so it is perfect for those deeply integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem.

Specializes in process automation. This low-code platform allows the development of impactful business applications faster.

Focuses on scalability, iteration, accessibility, and GDPR compliance. Best fitted for professional development teams in resource-constrained and innovation-geared environments.

This platform provides an easy way to develop web applications for nontechnical users. It is flexible and user-friendly.

Kissflow fits big and complex organizations due to its broader audience beyond just developers. It enables cross-team collaboration through a common language and interface.

This tool features a drag-and-drop environment that helps a developer build applications fast with as little coding as possible.

AI-powered low-code platform with process management functionality, including a set of templates and solutions. Features ready-to-use applications and solutions of the Creatio Marketplace to extend functionality.

The Best Low-Code Development Platforms article covers well the landscape of low-code platforms. 

Low-code development stands out due to its versatility, with currently no limitations on its range of applications.

KPMG 2023 survey of 309 companies offers insight into what kinds of applications are most commonly developed with low-code:

• Development of less complex apps 50 %
• Workflows 50 %
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) 50 %
• Automation 49 %
• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning 48 %

Low-code development has gained significant popularity across various industries, including e-commerce, business process management, social media management, customer relationship management (CRM), content management systems (CMS), entertainment (including game development), and Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) processes.

Read more on what kinds of applications and custom solutions you can build with low-code platforms.

According to various sources and surveys, low-code development is favored by companies and programmers for the following benefits:

Visual modeling tools, drag-and-drop interface, and reusable components reduce development, testing, and deployment time. Developers can meet tight deadlines, deliver more projects, and focus on more complex tasks.

Low-code doesn't require a single line of code. Reduced costs also come from lower maintenance costs and efficient use of existing IT and business resources.

Low-code is perfectly aligned with a rapid application development framework with quick iterations and consistent user feedback. You can quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs as you go.

Predefined components mean that there are fewer bugs and integration issues. Low-code allows for quick iterations, so the dev teams can spend more time on innovation rather than constant alignment with business requirements.

Thanks to drag-and-drop functionality, anyone can work with low-code, from professional developers to business users, which makes collaboration easy and efficient.

Low-code empowers citizen developers or users without formal programming knowledge to create applications. This helps avoid the misinterpretation of requirements as citizen developers come from business backgrounds.

With a low-code license, you can reduce the temptation for non-IT professionals to seek unsanctioned IT solutions, so you mitigate the risks of shadow IT, ensuring security and data governance.

Low-code eliminates mundane programming tasks so developers can focus on more engaging work. The shift from coding to innovation and strategic thinking means applications are delivered faster and productivity increases.

The four most recent trends in low-code development are the integration of GenAI into low-code development platforms, maintaining the efficiency of the core components, a shift to a fusion development team approach, and more focus on governance.

Experts predict a future where GenAI will be integrated into low-code development platforms. The AI will generate initial proposals for web and mobile app development. However, evaluating these proposals will still require technical expertise.

Surveys point out the emergence of a "fusion development" approach that integrates the capabilities of GenAI with the expertise of citizen developers and professional developers. This approach is seen as a future direction that leverages the strengths of both humans and AI.

According to Forrester, while GenAI shows great potential in low-code development, the foundational components of the platforms, such as workflow automation and data management, remain critical for low-code platforms to sustain. AI is still not viewed as a tool that can substitute it all.

Another low-code development trend from Forrester focuses on the increased role of automation in governance processes. Low-code platforms are being used to solve mundane tasks such as risk management, waste reduction, and order maintenance. To help tackle these issues, low-code platforms develop features such as role-based access, workflow automation, an inventory of "in-construction" vs. deployed applications, and collaboration features such as live co-development and version control.

In conclusion, the low-code development landscape is changing how business leaders, users, and developers approach software development in the digital age. We covered the history of low-code development, its architecture, and how to get started with low-code.

We also reviewed the benefits of low-code development and its use cases across industries.

The choice of a low-code development platform largely depends on the project requirements and the scale of the project, though some platforms, for example, Kettufy allow for projects of any complexity to be developed without code. As we evolve in this digital era, Kettufy and other leading platforms will drive digital transformation and make app development accessible to everyone. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a citizen developer, the future of low-code is exciting and brings the ability to innovate, streamline, and bring your ideas to life faster and more efficiently.