The Success Drivers for an Introduction of Citizen Development 

What are the Success Drivers for the Introduction of Citizen Development?

Citizen development often emerges as a grassroots movement. In many cases, the right platforms, or the business-threatening standstill – caused by paralyzing special software solutions – motivate the specialist departments to take the initiative themselves. This momentum must be contained. The task of top management is to create a culture and guidelines in which these initiatives are not only possible but explicitly desired.  

During the introduction of Citizen Development, five critical factors have emerged from the large number of our projects to ensure that companies benefit from the promised innovative power and that the movement is not nipped in the bud.

1. The appropriate strategic platform 
   A solution tailored to the specific domain must be implemented. Relying on generic solutions, which are therefore not very domain-specific, often leads to problems in most cases. It’s precisely when challenges become specific that generic No- and Low-Code platforms fail to provide an answer. Instead, it is advisable to introduce the right platform for different specialist domains – cplace is the tool of choice for our customers. 
    
2. The right people with the appropriate mindset 
   Do-it-yourself is a must, not only to retain knowledge, but also to address the scalability issue of IT experts. However, the hands-on mentality must be deeply anchored in the corporate culture. Corporate IT must not disrupt this development, but must support, challenge, and encourage local drivers – on strategically selected platforms. Citizen Developers have existed for decades, but solutions often emerge in shadow IT, relying on non-business-ready and non-scalable solutions such as Excel. These individuals need to be identified, motivated, and trained on the available platform.
    
3. Implementing rapid flagship projects 
   Companies should reward and celebrate solutions that emerge from business departments and are characterized by their Citizen Developer characteristics. Initially, rapid flagship projects need to be realized to strengthen creativity and motivation within the departments. It’s not uncommon for us to witness a kind of wildfire effect with cplace at clients, quickly spreading: Departments showcase self-built solutions to each other. Often underlying this is the digital version of the IKEA effect. 
    
4. Planning software construction together 
   Despite all the dynamics, innovation power, and the establishment of decentralized, impactful solutions: support from corporate IT or platform experts is needed to accompany the construction within the company. Departments and experts must decide together whether a project can be implemented autonomously and independently or with the support of partners. Digital ruins may not be visible, but poorly planned and incorrectly integrated system landscapes can disrupt work processes and prevent innovation. 
    
5. Scaling with the right partner 
   Even very large applications on platforms like cplace can be supported by skilled architecture and the provision of abstraction layers by citizen developers. This all requires an experienced partner who designs systems in such a way that collaboration by specialist departments is made possible in the right places and the code is implemented by experienced software architects in very demanding areas.