Low code as a remedy for skills shortages

Helping people to help themselves: Low code as a remedy for the shortage of skilled

The shortage of skilled workers, especially when it comes to IT, can be felt everywhere. One way to address this is to enable departments to implement their own business applications without having to involve the IT department or an external service provider. But low code offers many other benefits: it is agile, transparent and infinitely flexible.**

What is low code and why do we need it?

Low-Code enables our customers to develop their own application cases successfully (further) by placing different prefabricated “nodes” on a completely free surface and putting them in a logical connection with each other. It is possible to choose from a large number of ready-made modules with all possible functions. Low-Code is particularly suitable for projects where the logic has to constantly adapt to the (new) framework conditions over the life cycle.

No-Code vs. Low-Code - What’s the difference?

No-code here means that there are only prefabricated components and the programming work is done solely through selection and configuration. SPIRIT/21 therefore relies on low-code according to the flow-based programming paradigm so that our customers can also cover non-domain-specific use cases or unknowns (such as the integration of new sensors, additional interfaces, etc.) in the long term. Basically, power users can achieve over 85% of the required technical functionality without code, i.e. through pure configuration. However, where things become more complex and unpredictable, a certain understanding of architecture and at least quickly learnable scripting know-how is necessary. In addition, individual development is still possible.

Specialist knowledge can be applied more widely thanks to low code

The code know-how that is sometimes required is mostly limited to the development of short scripts, such as nested loops or if queries with chained logical operations, as well as the understanding of data objects and data flows. The use of low code does not make classical programming obsolete, but broader applicability.

Benefits of low code for businesses

In the end, it’s clearly always the costs: to modify a classic code, you have to dig deep into it. If the code is a little older and/or the person who originally wrote it is no longer available, the process can take longer and become expensive. Low code is so cluttered that any adjustment can be made immediately. Low code is also particularly useful for minimizing the proliferation of different programming languages, frameworks and operating environments and their versions.

Low code also prevents certain developments from having to be made multiple times, e.g. the same system interface can be used for different projects in several technologies. Once a building block has been developed, it can be used as often as desired.