Neota Logic recently attended CLOC Vegas 2019 where we held a demonstration with our clients: Tony O’Reilly, Director, Technology & Innovation at KPMG and Sukesh Kamra, National Director, Knowledge Management at Norton Rose Fulbright. Here are their views on agile app development using no-code automation platforms. Watch the streaming of this session here.
Agile App Development
Tony O’Reilly explained the importance of ‘agile app development’ when using no-code automation platforms like Neota. Agile is not a new term. In this context, Tony explains that it’s all about having a tool that gives you the ability to develop digital solutions quickly – ideation, planning, designing, building, review and repeat. The goal being speed to market.
Tony further explains; “With no-code development platforms, it’s not about going in and having an idea and then three years later you have a mature product that you take to market. It’s about iterating a really fast prototype and showing something that can be done really quickly and then iterate, iterate, iterate.”
As the name suggests, no-code platforms mean you don’t need to be a programmer to build applications. It’s more about finding builders that have the right skills to map out the thought process of the application and to get an idea transformed into an application.
Tony works across the tax, legal and deals practice at KPMG Australia and needed a technology that would enable them to deliver their services, as well as doing bespoke builds for clients if they have a particular area they need help with. When thinking of app ideas, the trick is not to focus in on the particular use case but think about what you are doing as a service on a daily basis and the different ways you could go about digitizing these services.
The thought of building applications yourself might seem painful when you have so much else going on but with no-code development platforms, it’s so much easier to build applications to digitize your services than before. You don’t need to brief developers and get them to write code. This pain is taken away. Learn more about one of the apps that KPMG built here.
The Planning Process
Sukesh Kamra spoke about how the planning process and people were key to look at before you even begin to look at the technology itself. It’s so important that partners and innovation teams don’t just think about the shiny object fixing the problem. It’s often about how you get there.
Sukesh advised putting together a maturity model to facilitate this process. Organizations should look at all the factors that impact the overall goal you are trying to achieve and define the maturity levels required to achieve this goal. You might identify that you will need a digital solution in order to do this but sometimes a process improvement or simply better communication is required. This is the exercise Sukesh’s team undertakes every time they need to decide whether to build something. The reason they do this is very simple: Apps are shiny at first but they can become dull over time. If you have mapped out the process that you know supplements the need with the ‘Under-the-hood’ element of that app, then just a little bit of a polish can rejuvenate these applications going forward.
How to Get Started
Their advice when you’re looking to develop your own applications using no-code platforms:
- Start small – don’t look into building an app based on 5 pages of decision trees. Build something that addresses 80% of the most common questions. Your subject matter experts are on hand to deal with the rest.
- Working with subject matter experts is key – getting the SME together for requirement gathering is key. The build is the easy part!
- Think about the end user – Think about the user experience. Who is the intended audience?
- Think about the objectives of what you want the app to achieve – a clear objective is paramount. Be very clear on what the solution is trying to achieve