No-code Development Platforms: Breaking the Boundaries between IT and Business Experts

Abstract

The importance of Low-code and No-code technologies is increasing due to the lack of knowledge about hand-coding languages and the difficulty in recruiting professional developers in companies that want to speed up the applications’ development process. This study aims to understand the impact of Low-code and No-code development platforms (LCDPs and NCDPs) on business dynamics as enablers in bridging the gap between business and Information technology (IT) experts’ collaboration. The topic’s novelty encourages an explorative research approach by following a case study strategy developed through a qualitative semi-structured interview and the card-based game method to support data collection. Two companies located in different countries and sectors were involved, and four key informants were interviewed. The evidence of the analysis shows the main reasons that have encouraged companies to adopt NCDPs, which reside in the possibility of speeding up process automation and applications’ development, allowing employees to learn how to use the platform autonomously, empowering collaboration among business experts and IT professionals as well as increasing customer satisfaction. The study represents an additional contribution to the importance of LCDPs and NCDPs as tools that enable faster automation of processes and software and application development in companies in different sectors