Design Training Programs that Empower Citizen Developers to Deliver Results

According to Gartner's research, by 2025, over 70% of organizations will use citizen-developed applications. The rise in using citizen development is because of an extreme shortage of software developers plus the rising cost of traditional software development. In addition, as organizations transform digitally, there is an increasing need for business applications. Therefore, citizen developers are needed to meet the growing demand for digital business applications.

Citizen Developers need to master a new set of skills to succeed.

Many citizen developers are skilled in business analysis, marketing, or business strategy. They have excellent critical thinking skills and analytical skills. However, citizen developers can be more effective if they acquire design thinking, product development and management, collaboration, customer education, and stakeholder management skills.

This program describes how to build a training program that will give the citizen developers the knowledge and skills to create valuable no-code/low-code digital applications. First, we teach citizen developers how to use design thinking to build effective business solutions. Then, citizen developers will learn how to create empathy for the customers' problems, visualize possible solutions through design workshops, and use rapid prototyping to test and deploy no-code/low-code solutions.

Once the no-code/low-code business application has been validated through prototyping, citizen developers will learn the basics of product development and management. Product development and management skills will aid citizen developers in supporting and enhancing the no-code/low-code products while educating customers on how to gain the most value from the products.

One of the most significant partnerships for citizen developers is the IT Department. Citizen developers and the IT staff must have a good working relationship to build good no-code/low-code applications that are secure and integrate well with the organization's IT architecture. In addition, citizen developers should know when to develop applications independently and when to call in help from the IT Department.

Finally, this program will help teach citizen developers an agile project management method that is easily customizable to the unique needs of citizen development. Using Disciplined Agile, citizen developers will create Ways of Working (WoW) that provide just enough project management so they can deliver no-code/low-code solutions fast while maintaining high quality.

This certificate program is unique because it is the first training program to address citizen developers' learning and development needs. According to Mendix's 2021 survey of 2,025 IT professionals in six countries, in organizations that use no-code/low-code platforms, 56% of employees use citizen-developed apps. Thirty-three percent of organizations surveyed use citizen-developed apps for mission-critical operations. In addition, No-code/low-code projects reduce software application costs by 53% while delivering the applications 56% faster than traditional software projects.

Get ahead of the citizen development revolution and prepare your organization for success by strengthening the essential skills for your citizen developers!