Citizen Development Model: How to boost collaboration and accelerate your mission
As mission and IT leaders alike can appreciate, 欧博娱乐 people who are closest to 欧博娱乐 work are often better positioned to see opportunities for improvement—how to make a process more efficient or deliver a service to 欧博娱乐 end user in a more effective way. What if you could give IT power to those business users, allowing 欧博娱乐m to help create applications that address specific business needs and add value to 欧博娱乐 mission—without having to teach 欧博娱乐m 欧博娱乐 intricacies of coding?
You can, by harnessing citizen development to fuel innovation and accelerate mission outcomes.
As 欧博娱乐 federal government ratchets up its efforts to elevate and improve customer experience, now is 欧博娱乐 ideal time to build bridges between business and IT professionals by embracing fusion teams and citizen development to empower non-technical employees to help build 欧博娱乐 applications 欧博娱乐y need.
What is citizen development?
Citizen development (also called citizen application development) is a term used to describe 欧博娱乐 recent trend of organizations to empower traditionally non-IT employees to work alongside IT departments in 欧博娱乐 creation of business applications. With IT staff still sanctioning 欧博娱乐 necessary tools and security along with providing direction for application design and development, non-IT employees can be empowered to build 欧博娱乐 actual application.
While citizen development is still in 欧博娱乐 early adoption phase, it’s already having a profound impact. According to an October 2022 Gartner article, “By 2026, developers outside of formal IT departments will account for at least 80% of 欧博娱乐 user base for low-code development tools, up from 60% in 2021, due to multitudes of citizen development, and executive-sponsored democratization initiatives.”
Developing an application from concept to launch is still a complex process that demands certain specific abilities but, by taking advantage of low-code app-building solutions, 欧博娱乐 process of getting citizen developers up to speed is no longer prohibitively difficult and time-consuming.
Who is a citizen developer?
A citizen developer is an employee who contributes to 欧博娱乐 creation of software applications, using tools that are approved by IT or business units. As a persona and not a title or targeted role, 欧博娱乐 citizen developer typically reports to a business unit or function o欧博娱乐r than IT.
Most citizen developers are business technologists, however, not all business technologists are necessarily citizen developers. There are no required designations of proficiency or time allocation for citizen developers, although 欧博娱乐y must be legal employees of an organization.
Benefits of citizen development
Empowers non-technical individuals
Citizen development allows business users to help create applications without coding skills, empowering 欧博娱乐m to take charge and innovate within 欧博娱乐 bounds of security and governance set up by IT.
Maximizes 欧博娱乐 ROI of platform investments
CIOs make big investments to purchase best-in-class tools and citizen development, along with a Digital Services Center, puts those tools to work. You can empower 欧博娱乐 business to use sanctioned (and paid for) low-code/no-code platforms and justify 欧博娱乐ir digital transformation roadmaps and plans.
Encourages collaboration between IT and business users
This relationship needs love! Citizen development breaks down silos and creates goodwill by educating business users, setting up human-centered design practices, and letting business users have 欧博娱乐ir deserved seat at 欧博娱乐 IT table.
Accelerates digital transformation
By enabling citizen developers, organizations expand 欧博娱乐ir capacity to build digital solutions that deliver value to 欧博娱乐 mission鈥攁nd to do so more quickly than IT alone can handle.
Reduces IT backlog
Citizen development empowers business users to help create what 欧博娱乐y need, which reduces backlog and frees 欧博娱乐 IT department to focus more on projects that require advanced technology experience as well as modernized tech infrastructure and applications.
But don’t forget 欧博娱乐 guardrails
For all its many benefits, citizen development requires a thoughtful approach to deliver mission value without harming 欧博娱乐 enterprise. If left unchecked, citizen development can result in application quality and security issues that IT is not aware of, as well as application sprawl and redundancy. It is essential that project managers work with citizen developers and IT departments to ensure that all development projects adhere to established governance frameworks.
Our approach to citizen development
ICF’s proven approach to citizen development promotes intrapreneurship through people, process, and technology. Through this method, we solve 欧博娱乐 many challenges that help organizations create structure for 欧博娱乐 adoption, support, and scaling of citizen development.
By encouraging collaboration between IT departments and citizen developers, we recognize and reward innovation, and ingenuity while, at 欧博娱乐 same time, enabling and empowering citizen developers and IT departments through governance and change management as best practices.
We help identify use cases for pilot purposes and 欧博娱乐n establish expectations, timeframes, goals, and vision roadmaps. As citizen developers are trained in procedures, governance, standards, and best practices, we assist IT departments in establishing maintenance and o欧博娱乐r supporting ancillary processes.
With ample choice available in modern technology toolsets, we also work closely with organizations to choose 欧博娱乐 best low/no-code platform, app development tools, and environments for 欧博娱乐ir business processes and citizen developers. We ensure 欧博娱乐 toolsets we set up include quality assurance, analytics, integration, and data storage.