QuickBase predicts that developers are going to be redefined in 2017

Agile methodologies have completely changed how companies evaluate and implement technology solutions. In 2017, we’ll see a new wave of agile thinking enter the enterprise, this time with a focus on helping enterprises make strategic decisions more quickly. The days of lengthy research projects and teams of management consultants are numbered. Thanks to agile technology, employees - whether in IT, operations, or marketing - will be able to use tech like rapid application development and automated research tools to run quick tests and answer questions on their own. By more quickly understanding which processes and strategies are working and which aren’t, employees will be empowered to make intelligent decisions and adjust their approaches on the fly.

 

In 2017, we’ll see hiring managers start thinking outside the box to help fill their organizations’ development needs. This will be fueled by a few market forces: 

- The continuing shortage of skilled developers, as we know them today

- The increase in popularity of tools that allow for the development of software with little to no code, and greater familiarity with these tools among job candidates

- Managers looking for a programmer or developer “mindset” versus only relying on technical skills

 

While coding skills will continue to be important, in many cases they will no longer be the be-all, end-all for recruiters looking to fill development needs for the business. While the definition of “developer” won’t change overnight, 2017 is likely to mark the onset. Even Gartner predicts that by 2020, 60 percent of all fast-mode application development projects will be done outside of formal IT teams. In the process, new challenges will emerge for technical hiring managers. How do you identify good developers? And, what should their performance be measured by? 

 

In the last decade, digital transformation has changed the way marketing and IT work, but there are still key areas of the business that remain relatively untransformed by digital. In 2017, digital transformation will finally hit a third critical department in the enterprise -  operations. A recent survey we conducted showed that 23 percent of non-IT staff in operations business units are already developing the apps they need to make digital transformation in their departments a reality, but we expect that figure to rise - in large part driven by a shift in budgets and a commitment to serving customers better. Forrester recently reported that compared to the amount they have traditionally spent to transform customer experiences, enterprises like The Home Depot and Unilever will spend four times more on digitizing their operations. 

 

As citizen development becomes mainstream and companies get more comfortable using low-code tools internally, they’ll more frequently experiment with creating apps that are external-facing. Citizen developers will still be creating these apps, but the use case will more often focus on serving partners and customers for tasks like asset tracking or joint project management. In fact, a recent survey of citizen developers that we conducted showed that more than one-third (35 percent) of app builders create customer-facing apps, up from 27 percent in 2015. For partners and customers, this shift will also mean they’re likely to receive greater access to information they need on the fly through app-based solutions that serve their needs specifically. 

 

The “citizen” worker will disrupt the workforce. 

2017 will lead to the rise of the “citizen” employee -  those who have not had formal training for specialized skills, but who can complete the same tasks with the aid of tech tools. We’ve seen that with citizen app development (using platforms like QuickBase), citizen video marketers (using tools like Animoto); citizen website builders (using tools like Wix); and citizen data scientists (using tools like Platfora), to name a few. As technology democratizes specialized skill sets, more “citizen” job opportunities are likely to emerge in the process. This includes the citizen data integrator, whose emergence will be driven—just like the citizen data scientist - by the growth of enterprise data and companies looking for more efficient ways to harness it.