How We Write Better Software with Low-Code • Michiel Overeem • GOTO 2023

Interesting. speech low-code platform Michiel OvereemHow the Dutch company AFAS came to its SaaS product (a mixture of ERP, CRM, CMS, and other three-letter words) It's a low-code approach. In fact, the product is almost 3 Over the decades, it has gone from MS DOS to being deployed on servers and becoming a legacy:) Then there was the task to separate the domain logic and the technological part. Business knowledge had to stay in the models so that technology could be safely developed. The company decided to do this by creating a low-code engine, which will be used by internal employees, domain experts, to create / edit business processes and user scenarios for working with the system. Models from the domain should be technology-free, describing processes and roles in the real world. The low-code platform had to invest heavily and work on the architecture, as a result, a framework for creating interfaces and a backend framework turned out. 95% of functionality is generated based on the model that is created by citizen developers (These are people who use a low-code platform and the very term I am. told more)eh 5The percentage is written manually by engineers. The author further explains the advantages of this approach: Creating a domain model allows developers to write code, test it and put it into a generator, which simplifies the development process. The domain model allows replacing technologies and interfaces while retaining knowledge in the model. Citizen developers can make changes to the model without the intervention of engineers, which increases productivity and allows them to create prototypes and experiment. Citizen developers can create software using their business knowledge, allowing them to create profitable byproducts But there are problems.

• Citizen developers ~~may contribute~~ make errors in the model, which complicates the debugging process and requires the involvement of programmers for consultation. Citizen developers need to understand how their model changes affect the runtime properties of software, which requires additional tools and training. Well, there's more to come. Low-code is not a universal solution for all parts of the application. Use low-code only in certain parts where you can find repeatable snippets, as this allows you to work on these parts not engineers, but citizen developers. Low-code should be considered as an additional tool to improve performance and create better software.

In general, this is a fairly simple and clear report on how companies come to low-code solutions as part of their product. For example, we have a low-code marketing platform in which analysts themselves can build the process of marketing communications with certain segments of our customers.

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