Appian identifies low-code IT satisfaction factors
Back in the day (you remember the seventies and eighties right?), people went to work.
Workers would get to the office, make a cup of tea or coffee, talk about football, family, friends and Fridays… and then they’d settle down to perform whatever task they had been professionally trained for in order to receive a monthly- or weekly-based level or remuneration that was roughly commensurate with their level of proficiency and seniority.
Then, sometime later… people started caring about worker welfare, job satisfaction, human capital development and that thing called employee experience.
So how did the techies feel about this notion?
Software satisfaction
For software application developers, job satisfaction used to be a comparatively internal thing. A job well done was a programming project that ran on time, delivered a bug free final product and made it through user acceptance testing.
At that point, pizza and hot wings were ordered… soda (and possibly beer) were chilled and everybody was happy.
These days, developers are rather closer to the limelight, possibly because software runs the world and so-called digital transformation is everywhere. Now that even your grandmother has an ‘app’, the demand for new software streams is continuing to spiral.
These are perhaps some of the reasons why companies like Appian have self-styled themselves as pioneers in the low-code software market.
The company suggests that the demand for more software today is being driven by increased pressure from changing business expectations in the face of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Appian’s “Impact of Low-code on IT Satisfaction” survey conducted by IDG says that developers state the following as the worst aspects of their jobs:
- Time spent troubleshooting application issues
- Time constraints and deadline pressures
- Time wasted on repetitive coding tasks
- Time not spent on opportunities to work on strategic projects.
What can low-code do, really?
We know that low-code really isn’t no-code (as in total drag-and-drop) and so still requires a good degree of technical competency, so what can low-code really do?
Appian points to low-code’s ability to automate repetitive development tasks, such as coding forms and business rules.
The company says that 86% of IT developers surveyed agree that emerging technology is increasing the pressure on the IT organisation. This increased pressure is most often felt in the form of requests for new emerging technology applications… and requests to integrate emerging technology with legacy systems and data.
Fractured IT landscape
Despite customer experience apps being the most requested, fewer than 50% of all respondents say their organisation is ‘extremely or very” effective at integrating AI and RPA into customer service workflows.
A major contributing reason for this appears to be the fact that most of us sit on a ‘fractured IT landscape’, that is to say – a customer service application typically requires service representatives to open an average of five screens to get a full view of a customer today.
Right well… you know that feeling when they say ‘can I just put you on hold’, well now you know why.
The full “Impact of Low-code on IT Satisfaction” survey report is available here.