LowCode Experts divides developers into three very generic classifications.
- Citizen developers
- Professional developers
- Experienced developers
We consider a citizen developer to be a developer without a formal programming education or other programming experience. Some of these developers might be very experienced in Excel, Access or other common Microsoft or Google Suit tooling. This comes in very handy, and with Microsoft Power apps, it is actual a benefit. Microsoft Power apps view LowCode as the next step for Excel-proficient people who want to extend their capability to building business apps on the departmental level.
Professional developers have fundamental knowledge of relational databases and business logic, and they might also have a formal education in programming. What they do have is at least three years' experience in programming, either in LowCode or in any other programming environment, such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, Unity, etc.
We consider developers experienced after they have spent 10 years working in multiple programming platforms. For example, a person who has five years' experience in programming in .NET and five years in OutSystems is someone we would call experienced. If a developer has five years of experience in OutSystems on their CV and tells us they also did some programming in .NET, this is simply not sufficient. I would rather hire someone with 10 years' experience .NET and half a year in OutSystems than someone with 10 years of experience in OutSystems. The latter is just a professional OutSystems developer.
Then come the specific niches. Don't hire a Mendix developer to do a SAP consultant's job! When you integrate with SAP, make sure that your developer actually has at least five years of SAP experience. The same goes for every niche: for example, if you foresee complex front-end functionality, then hire a JavaScript developer who also has a certificate to fit your LowCode platform.
Experience means understanding business complexity and how that translates to database design and business logic design. In one word: architecture! Most long-term problems with LowCode are the result of poorly chosen architectural designs. Architecture is the Achilles heel of Agile!