Or why “no-code” is a re-branding of something we once called “shadow IT”.
I’ve worked in companies big and small, sometimes within business units and other time within IT units. For a while now I have been an IT Product Manager in a fortune 500 company.
An idea that is on the rise is “no-code” solutions. You know, those solutions which are supposed to be abstracted away from writing code, and configurable to such a degree that any non-technical person can use them to build out solutions which solve business problems quickly and of course, without having to code.
I’ve seen a lot of posts lately from people who believe the future is in no-code and there is a lot of money to be made there. Some no-code solutions have even been sold to bigger players such as SAP & AppGuyer. I’d like to provide an alternate viewpoint — there is not a future in the no-code solution at scale.
In the large companies I’ve worked for over the years, when business folks aren’t able to get their problems solved with legit IT solutions, they typically default to building “shadow IT” solutions. These solutions usually turn out to be some sort of combination of spreadsheets, recorded macros, and someone’s attempt at building an Access database. The piece de la resistance is when they put the whole thing on a sharepoint site. It’s usually a horrid mess for IT to come in and clean up later, often when there is some IT-sponsored upgrade, and the duct tape solutions no longer work.
There was even a time a few years ago in our company when certain business teams were actively hiring for “shadow IT” roles, a la looking for an individual who straddled the line between business and IT, perhaps someone who might be considered a “power user”. He would sit on the business side, but his primary function would be to create hacky, one-off shadow IT solutions which were not sponsored by IT.
This practice was shut down soon enough and lots of processes were spun up to monitor hiring practices and monitor business operations to prevent shadow IT solutions from being implemented. No one was satisfied. The business didn’t get what they needed, and all the monitoring just put more of a barrier between business and IT.
Now before you go thinking that I am a snobby IT diva, the other side of the story here is that the whole reason “shadow IT” became a thing is because IT simply wasn’t delivering. Simple as that. Business had been burned too many times with IT promises that never materialized into an actual, workable solution with business value.
So, In 2021, it looks like “shadow IT” has re-branded itself to “no code”.
I wonder if the corporate purchases of all of these no-code solutions are really just another attempt to shut down the “shadow IT” solutions? As they stand now, these types of solutions will never be accepted in corporate fortune 500 (other than to be used in prototyping). So is this a way of eliminating solutions before they get a foothold in the corporate marketplace?
I think there is an opportunity for IT to deliver better, faster solutions which actually bring business value to their stakeholders. However, I think the real solutions lie in the ability of IT teams to learn how to reliably deliver, not in hacky no-code solutions that will get crushed by corporate immunity before it even gets in the door.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
