Mo Code Mo Problems?

I recently recorded a conversational webinar discussing the benefits of efficient development over conventional low-code concepts, just a little 15 minute chat at my kitchen table with some things that have been simmering around in my brain for a while.

After being in this automation industry for nearing two decades, I’ve seen lots of buzzwords come out of the analyst community – from “business process management” to “low code application platforms” and now over to “business orchestration and automation technologies” – but the concepts remain the same as the categories change: how to orchestrate data between people and systems in a scalable, repeatable, and efficient way.

During this chat, I posited that there were four categories that run the spectrum from complex development and use cases to the simple, no-code solutions, as shown in the header graphic.

I think there is a sweet spot in this more-code categorization. While no-code tools are simple to use and, with a little training, you can build some applications that help display and route data between people fairly easily, these workflow applications don’t have the capability to truly move the efficiency needle at an organization.

Look, everyone needs a way to capture t-shirt sizing for a marketing launch, or organize flights/hotels/food preferences for an off-site conference, and there are varying ways to solve this; throwaway Excel spreadsheets that reach the end of their life quickly are a low cost, also no-code solution.

When investing in an automation platform, I’m looking for power features. Those ways to extend beyond the box and do the higher value things.

Maybe in that marketing launch example, you also want to direct order from a fulfillment center that can ship directly to remote employees locations, for a true end-to-end automated solution. Maybe that fulfillment center does have API endpoints to directly interface with, but it’s a niche system or most tools don’t have it out-of-the-box, or it’s a premium add-on. Maybe the person running the marketing launch doesn’t understand how to even go about integrating with the fulfillment center, but their technical friend in IT, or a technically savvy shadow IT friend could help. This is where more-code can shine.

When I think about the more-code category, it’s not necessarily slinging code from scratch:

• It’s about using those technical concepts of APIs or endpoints or Object Oriented Programming concepts to help you efficiently build solutions that go beyond the limits of no-code.
• It’s understanding versioning concepts and lifecycle management, which usually are not exposed to designers of no-code solutions with only one environment.
• It’s about breaking down silos of information into reusable components that can help take data from disparate systems and display the data to a human to make the right decision, at the right time.
• It’s reusing those connections or data objects in a way that you can build more powerful applications, faster.
• It’s future proofing your solutions when those LOB systems inevitably get swapped out for different solutions (raise your hand if you have been a victim of an ERP or CRM migration project).
• It’s making sure that the sky is truly the limit when it comes to your automation needs, that you can integrate with any system, anywhere.

So is it more-code, more problems? Or is it more-code, more power, more flexibility, more efficiencies?