Software Development

When software firms anticipate their next major product, they frequently picture a self-managed software development team devoted to their job entirely.In reality, assembling a great development team is not always as straightforward as it appears. What distinguishes a good software developer from a great one is team members' trust in reaching shared objectives.Indeed, most development projects fail prematurely due to a collective and individual lack of faith in the project's success. As many as 78 percent of information technology experts report feeling dissatisfied with project needs.

In this article, you'll learn tried-and-true strategies and best practices for assembling a successful software development team, from recruiting the proper personnel to project management procedures.

What Is a Software Development Team?

Teams of software developers collaborate to create a technical project or product. Each development team member contributes to this effort and should be held accountable for their efforts. Above all, software development teams should be self-organizing and cross-functional in nature. Individually structured and efficient labor maximizes the development team's total effectiveness. Simultaneously, team members must work cooperatively to communicate and carry out shared obligations. To create this synergy between team structure and empowerment, development teams must bear the following features in mind:

• The team is naturally self-organizing, and productivity is contingent on group effort.
• The teams are well-equipped and cross-functional; they possess all of the team abilities required to advance the product through all stages of development.

While individual members of the development team may have specific talents and domains of concentration, the software development team as a whole bears accountability. Successful software development teams have people who:

• Leave the codebase in a better state than when it was discovered
• Recognize and share their customer's interests
• Rather than condemning individuals directly, they critique their ideas.
• Share your past and current experiences in order to provide new team insights.
• Have fun together and trust one another.
• Why is it necessary to have a team structure?

When assembling a software engineering team, consider the numerous factors that affect the team's productivity and effectiveness. We rarely quantify effectiveness in modern agile teams in terms of lines of code produced. Rather than that, we place a higher premium on quality and continual progress. Furthermore, the team must be capable of achieving the "desired outcome." As a result, the following questions must be addressed.

1. Are we equipped with the necessary skills?

• Technical abilities
• Experience
• Soft abilities

2. Do we have an environment conducive to collaboration?

• Roles and responsibilities defined.
• Instruments of communication are in place.

3. Is the team aware of its objectives?

• Transparent communication from the top down ensures that the team understands the expectations.
• Exact specifications that minimize rework

4. Is the team empowered to deliver higher-quality results?

• In place procedures
• Proper leadership provides appropriate counsel.
• Appropriate compensation
• A society that values and celebrates victories

5. Is it possible for the team to create a greater result than the individuals?

• Synergy within the team
• Continual enhancement
• Teams capable of self-management and self-healing

What makes a successful Software Development Team SUCCESSFUL

Team Communication

Regardless of how talented your engineers are, poor team communication might result in project failure. The ability to communicate complicated concepts to all team members and be receptive to debate is one of the few factors contributing to team success. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of corporate messengers like Slack or Skype and participation in meetings to discuss plans. It's about fostering a sense of community inside the team, surrounded by open communication. By the way, all panelists on our recent CEO Night panel on successful communication agreed that team communication was critical to delivering results. For more information, you can view the complete video of the event.

Recognize The Software Development Team's Objectives

Each team must have distinct goals that are congruent with the company's overall mission. At Innovecs, we follow the OKR methodology – Objectives and Key Results. This technique enables the establishment of a logical hierarchy of goals inside the organization — from the corporate aim to the individual goal of each employee. OKR fosters a conducive environment and assists in directing efforts in the proper direction.

Roles And Responsibilities That Are Clearly Defined

While the software development team has a common vision, objective, and overall aim, each engineer knows their roles and responsibilities. Areas of responsibility and roles within the team are defined from the outset of the project based on the common aim; this ensures that each team member understands what they must perform. This avoids micromanagement and increases team transparency. We shall return to this subject in greater detail in the subsequent sections of the article.

How to Build a Successful Software Development Team

Step 1: Recognize the value of collaboration.

Be astute in identifying your employee's abilities and assigning duties that are a match for them. However, ensure that team members understand their roles in the team and how their personalities complement one another. The group's cohesion will provide them with the true ability to focus on and accomplish the common goal.

Step 2. Identify the appropriate individuals.

Choose applicants with a range of experience and perspectives to contribute to your project. The more angles you cover, the better your product will be at the launch and the less likely it will need to be changed or improved in the future.

Step 3: Develop delegation skills.

Your role is essential to ensure that your staff can perform their duties. Once you've established goals and rules, delegate authority to team members. Delegate authority and grant your development team access to tools.

Step 4: Monitor your progress.

The trouble is that when individuals enjoy what they do, they tend to overdo it. Your responsibility is to monitor progress and ensure that the project remains on schedule. Create a forum for sharing issues and have regular status meetings for the project. This way, you'll be able to determine whether the team is functioning effectively or whether you need to realign responsibilities. Allow the team, though, to conquer some difficulties on their own — with your direction. Dealing with problems in a group brings any team closer together and strengthens team members' confidence.

Step 5. Rejoice in small victories.

When your team accomplishes a goal – or, better yet, surpasses it – don't forget to recognize individual team members. This will motivate the team to work harder and foster a sense of community. If you're not the celebrating kind, organize at least one final meeting to express gratitude to those who worked on your project and made it a reality. Additionally, do not be afraid to utilize assistive tools and goods to ensure a seamless working process. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how technology adds to the efficiency of project management, Codementor has compiled a list of tools that will make life easier for the development team.

Building a Robust Software Development Team

Strong teams have a variety of distinct traits that help them to generate exceptional goods. When assembling your development team, ensure that you follow the following steps:

1. Employ a few senior developers

A highly efficient software development team must contain at least one senior developer; however, two or more is optimal. While a senior developer's significant expertise and experience will surely cost more, the increased efficiency and quality they offer to a project make the expense worthwhile. Senior developers frequently have highly developed intuitions and the ability to think strategically due to their years in the field. These are critical assets for any team, as they will assist in avoiding errors and ensuring products are delivered on time and within budget. Additionally, senior engineers will be more adept at producing clean code and minimizing technical debt. When you have less technical debt, you can scale the product more easily in the future.

2. Engage the services of a quality assurance engineer

Each successful development team should have a dedicated quality assurance (QA) engineer. As with senior engineers, QA engineers will assist the team in avoiding technical debt early in the software development cycle. A quality assurance engineer ensures that the software fulfills all of the product owner's requirements before going live. The QA engineer ensures that the team continually delivers high-quality products by regularly testing the code.

3. Take into account the candidate's personality

While knowledge, abilities, and experience all play a role in hiring, so does a candidate's personality. It is pointless to recruit a good software developer if they cannot work well with others. If you want to avoid your project derailing by large egos and quarrels, invest in software developers who are also good team players.

4. Establish standards and best practices for development

Once you've hired everyone, you'll need to create the groundwork for their job within the business. As a result, development standards and best practices must be established prior to the team writing a single line of code. Each individual will have their own style in terms of naming conventions and organizing; therefore, establishing rules early on can assist avoid incoherent development processes. Whether standards are developed through external best practices or internal consensus, it is critical that they are thoroughly recorded and adhered to by all team members. This technique fosters team cohesion immediately and enables new software engineers to integrate smoothly into the team in the future.

5. Provide the Team with the Appropriate Tools

As soon as the team is formed, determine precisely what hardware and software the members require and then give it. When a team is equipped with the appropriate tools, it may operate efficiently and effectively toward its objectives. Without the appropriate tools, little can be accomplished – regardless of how skilled your team members are.

6. Constant Communication

Because the most efficient teams communicate effectively, take steps to ensure continuous communication between team members and between the team and its organizational stakeholders. Team members should frequently meet as part of their constant communication to ensure everyone is on the same page. At this point, the team can establish specific goals and parameters that will guide each member's future work. Communication between team members can be significantly increased by exposing people to team members they would not engage with daily otherwise. Following work, group brainstorming sessions, and informal meetings are effective strategies to encourage such encounters.

7. Assist Developers in Professional Development

Attracting software engineers is difficult; retaining them is even more challenging. The labor market is extremely competitive, and other organizations will always attempt to poach your best employees. Replacing lost team members requires time and resources and can result in project delays and additional expenses; therefore, it is in your best interest to retain as many developers as possible.One of the most effective retention strategies is to invest in your employees' professional development. By investing time and money in your developers, you increase their loyalty and assist them in developing new talents that benefit your organization.

The Final Consideration

You've conducted the most exhaustive evaluation possible of a pool of prospects. After thoroughly verifying references and analyzing the available possibilities, you took steps to ensure that you hired a scrum software development team that would work well with you and help you achieve your goals. You've conducted the most exhaustive evaluation possible of a pool of prospects. Create a sense of belonging among your staff and recognize their accomplishments. Maintain open communication with your software development staff and make every effort to resolve their issues. Seek individuals that share your vision and objectives. Are you planning to build a software development team? Get in touch with one of the technology consultancy expert.

Many new Data Integration technologies are on the horizon, enabling the communication of data and information from multiple sources. Extract Transform Load is one term that revolves around data integration and refers to an approach that involves reading data from a source, processing it according to preset logic, and then loading the transformed data into the destination system. ETL solutions offer connectors that make performing data transformations across various data sources easy and reliable. These ETL tools have fully prepared connectors for classifying, combining, collecting, and other operations.

Among the best ETL tools,  Talend and Informatica PowerCenter are two of the most popular options. Both Informatica and Talend are quite intuitive solutions offering a quite handy GPU, but which one of them is a better option. This blog will compare both, so keep reading to know more about these tools.

Talend vs Informatica: A Closer Look

Before jumping into the difference between Talend and Informatica, let's explore these tools separately to understand their purpose.

What Is Talend?

Talend is an open-source platform that helps in data integration. It provides various tools and services for data integration and management, allowing companies to make timely and effective decisions based on data. Talend automates and maintains tasks and activities and has extensive community support due to it being an open-source tool. Its visual tools and wizards make it simple to automate the integration of large amounts of data. Using this tool, you can aggregate data from multiple sources into a single view. Talend is recognized as an innovatory tool in the cloud and extensive data integration software because it makes data more accessible, improves its quality, and allows it to be moved swiftly to target systems.

What Is Informatica?

Informatica is another major ETL solution for building enterprise data warehouses. It allows you to conduct real-time data integration, merge data, process big data, replicate and mask data, and much more. Researchers, programmers, and designers use this tool's wide range of features for tackling multiple data-related problems. Consequently, the app is available on all the major platforms. This technology's cloud-based services and solutions all businesses of all sizes to benefit from its usage. All the campaigns are run and are connected via the source in its server. The primary goal of bringing the data is to use it and then put it into the destination systems. This tool is quite useful when users have access to a data system and wish to do particular actions on the data at the backend.

Informatica vs Talend: How Are They Different?

Informatica and Talend are both designed to accomplish the same task of transferring data from the source to the destination. However, they perform this task in quite different ways. It is critical to understand both tools' working and pros and cons prior to building your ETL task to help you make the right decision. First, we must recognize that, while both tools include a GUI and both take data from sources, alter it, and transfer it to a destination, their implementations are somewhat different. Let's dig more into their difference by comparing them along the same sections.

Features

An intuitive user interface makes Talend Data Integration a breeze to learn and use. Its drag-and-and-drop process builder and prebuilt components save time and effort by not having to code from the beginning. Because of Talend’s widespread use, its active user community provides answers to many common problems, reducing the need for technical assistance for new users.Informatica PowerCenter has a reputation for being able to handle large-scale deployments. It has a wide range of data connections that allow it to integrate data from disparate or older systems, as well as multi-user, multi-divisional situations. Informatica is regarded as a well-established and robust ETL platform.  Additionally, PowerCenter offers a broad array of data transformation methods.

Connectors

According to Talend, more than a thousand connectors are available for almost every data source, both in the cloud and the local network. Microsoft Azure, AWS, Snowflake, and Databricks are just a few of the prominent data warehouses, cloud service providers, and analytics platforms that the platform works with. Over a hundred Informatica cloud and PowerExchange connectors allow Informatica users to connect to data warehouses, business applications, messaging systems, etc., both in the cloud and on-premises. Developers may also use the Informatica Connector Toolkit to create their custom connectors for the platform.

Limitations

Although Talend Data Integration provides an open-source, free version, it is regarded as an ineffective tool for practically any project despite its availability. Talend's premium edition is the only way to unlock valuable features. Also, Talend's IDE is pretty sluggish, and memory management is not quite impressive. When compared to Talend, Informatica PowerCenter is more difficult to use. Some users complain that it requires extensive training due to its dated and unappealing user interface.

While PowerCenter is a formidable ETL alternative, Informatica does not offer a free or open-source version. As well as having an outdated user interface, Informatica PowerCenter also lacks attractive reporting and visualization capabilities.

Documentation

Talend offers help via a built-in chat interface and a community forum. Additionally, it features an extensive knowledge base and blog. Furthermore, Talend provides support via its Talend Academy. Informatica assists in three levels. However, help is available to all customers by ticket, email, telephone, and the Informatica Network.Informatica's Basic Success plan subscribers can contact support only during business hours. Customers who subscribe to Premium Success get 24/7 assistance for priority 1 problems exclusively. Signature Success customers receive round-the-clock service in all instances. Additionally, Informatica includes a robust knowledge base and community forum. And like Talend, Informatica also provides training to users through its Informatica University.

Informatica vs Talend Pricing: Which Tool Is Cheaper?

Talend offers a free and open-source solution to all its users but with limited features. On the other hand, Informatica is a paid tool; you can avail of their free trial, though.Informatica offers its servers from the vendor via AWS for USD 3.50 per hour, excluding the AWS-related costs. Talend offers its premium services at USD 1170 per month per user.

Informatica vs Talend: Pros and Cons

All tools, regardless of their features, intuitiveness, and user-friendliness, have pros and cons, and Talend and Informatica are no exceptions. This section covers the pros and cons of both tools.

Informatica Pros

• A developer-friendly tool thanks to its ease of use.
• It is less expensive than other market-leading ETL solutions.
• Excellent documentation and support.
• Easy testing, monitoring, and maintenance.
• Handles massive volumes of data and provides reliability.

Informatica Cons

• Blobs and Clobs datatypes are quite challenging to handle.
• Requires additional hardware.
• Outdated UI.
• Lack of integration with other technologies.

Talend Pros

• It can use multiple types of data
• It has an intuitive user interface.
• Excellent migration speed.
• Impressive scheduling task dependencies and monitoring for data loading purposes.
• Easy deployment.

Talend Cons

• Inadequate support.
• Slow IDE.
• Data transformation's syntax should have been simpler.
• It consumes a lot of memory and CPU.

Final Thoughts: Informatica or Talend?

Talend and Informatica are both capable of doing the same task of altering and integrating data.Since Talend is an open-source Java application, if you're more comfortable with the language, it's the best option for you. On the other hand, Informatica is beneficial for ETL and data integration tasks. It also became the ETL market's dominant player. In terms of cost, preparation, and asset allocation, Informatica is more expensive. Talend is better suited for handling Big data. Although Informatica's latest version supports big data, they only approve Hive.We have compared Informatica and Talend in this detailed blog; now, it's upon you to make the right selection that fits your requirements better.

Applications today are utilities to get stuff done just by making a few clicks. The commercial aspect of these applications is to meet the needs of today's businesses. Whether your company is a multinational enterprise or just a small-sized facility with a four to five-person crew operating in a basement or studio apartment of any building, there will be a time when you face a problem that can't be solved by using mainstream and third-party software applications. You'll be needed to build a customized application by setting up an in-house development project.

The easier you can build and deploy software applications to sustain your needs and solve problems, the more time you'll be able to counter any unforeseen problem or challenge. To make app development easier and simpler, you need to know what No-code development platforms can offer.

This revolutionary trend of app-building utilities gives businesses of any size—from small to midsized (SMBs) up to large enterprises the ability to quickly design, develop, customize, and activate business apps with no coding at all. Such tools' features and customization flexibility vary from platform to platform, but the fundamental function remains the same. Using a simple combination of drag-and-drop UI, form builders, and visual modeling, users can utilize the benefits of No-code development platforms and produce a customized and ready-to-deploy application.

No-code development platforms are changing the developers' and coders' world like never before. The post-pandemic world has opened new corridors for rapid adaptation of no-coding platforms. The speed at which businesses are gearing up to test and build new software is overwhelming. Business intelligence (BI) teams are taking full advantage of No-code and low-code development platforms. These No-code development platforms come with a simple user interface, state-of-the-art tool assembly, and data visualization tools.

What is a Need for No-code Development Platforms?

The notable driving force behind the trend of No-code development is the urge for Digital Supermacy within the IT sector.

According to stats, the no-code development platforms business will grow to $21.2 billion by 2022 globally.

Another reason to adapt No-code platforms is linked to data security and data management. The phenomenon's like Shadow IT and Managed data security have made companies vulnerable to new attacks and illegal activities. With no code at the core of application development, companies prone to such attacks can secure their data assets and intellectual property effectively, without losing their drive, thus becoming smarter, adaptable, flexible, and agile in a short time.

Benefits of No-Code Platforms

The perks of shifting towards No-code development platforms are as under:

• Small and mid-sized businesses and startups can quickly enhance their application development skills using no-code development platforms.
• The tools and utilities available on No-code development platforms turn every employee into a developer within the organization.
• Both IT experts and non-expert employees can collaborate to rapidly develop apps that can be custom-built with dedicated functionalities to sustain the needs of any department like Sales, Marketing, Finance, and HR.
• Users can opt for simple templates for workflow, libraries, and customization to develop No-code applications anywhere, anytime.
• No-code apps can support and integrate with databases, web services, and APIs without losing any data.

Top No-Code App Development Platforms

List of the top-of-the-line no-code development platforms that you should know about in 2021.

Salesforce

Salesforce is the world's leading No-code development tool, and it acquires this status due to its state-of-the-art faster and simpler CRM, created using a no-code platform.Last year, Salesforce announced two new low-code features for its top application development platform, Lightning App Builder. These features include Dynamic Forms and Dynamic Actions, which allow Salesforce users to develop interactive and engaging forms with a no-code approach.

Nintex

Organizations all around the globe enjoy the perks of the Nintex Process Platform every day to instantaneously and easily manage, automate, and optimize their business processes. The Nintex Platform offers freedom of process mapping, workflow automation, robotic process automation, report generation, forms, mobile apps, process analytics, and more via a simple drag and drops layout. With few clicks and no code at all, Nintex makes it easier and quicker for small and mid-sized businesses to enterprise-level organizations to manage, automate, and optimize their business processes. With Nintex, businesses can design, develop, activate and manage the best solutions and services possible to sustain customer demands and boost productivity.

Nintex is a few DevOps platforms providing no-code software development with a Robotic Process Automation RPA utility. Nintex No-code services with RPA provide the perfect environment to train bots quickly and cost-effectively automate and streamline repetitive tasks with an agile approach. Apart from that, Nintex provides No-code utilities like:

• Nintex Forms
• Nintex K2 Cloud and Nintex K2 Five
• Nintex DocGen [Document and Report Generation]
• Nintex Sign [Digital Signature]

Nintex provides a solution for a multitude of business environments and departments such as:

• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Customer Service
• Sales & Procurement
• Finance
• Legal
• Marketing

Nintex shares a remarkable history of streamlining processes for SharePoint and Office 365, the latter of which recently crossed 50 million workflow tasks in 2017.Nintex platform has richly accompanied thousands of enterprises worldwide across industries, including the banking sector, insurance firms, pharmaceutical companies, government bodies, manufacturing firms, and healthcare.

Airtable

Airtable is a no-code development platform that encourages non-developers to innovate and design applications that increase agility within their workplace by handing over the power of a highly flexible database into the hands of creators. Airtable has raised $170M in funding and has over 170,000 businesses carrying out critical processes and workflows on Airtable. Airtable looks like a spreadsheet but has many powerful features. Building blocks provided by Airtable allow non-developers and developers to model their workflow, outline relationships between different variables, and create customized data views. Airtable provides adaptability and scalability if markets evolve or goals change. It provides an agile environment by enabling transparent and visible collaboration among team members and managers. It also allows developers and non-developers to solve a wide variety of use cases without writing any code.

Quickbase

Quickbase is a powerful, highly responsive no-code development platform that empowers businesses to quickly turn innovative ideas into efficient applications that make them more informed and productive. By using Quick Base, developers and non-developers can quickly develop business applications to flex and evolve by connecting people, information, and ideas safely.Quickbase has a rich history of assisting businesses to design, develop, regulate ?and improve ?their digital solutions by adapting a variety of tech utilities such as data mapping, data security, and remote user access. Using unified platform Quickbase, you can transform your entire business without hiring any software development team. Appy Pie has improved its market image due to its recent recognition by G2. It richly supplies no code support to non-developer teams and tools to build chatbots customized per business requirements. These apps and bots can easily build and harbor online data to provide content to the users offline and drive better interaction instantly.Most renowned utilities offered by Appy Pie include:

• Appypie Appmakr
• Appy Pie Website (to develop Websites)
• Appy Pie Live Chat
• Appy Pie Chatbot
• Appy Pie Design (for Graphic designing)

Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator is used to build multiplatform applications for simple call logs and Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs). Zoho Creator provides an interactive environment for visual development, code editing, and integration of built-in templates. Zoho Creator currently enables developers and non-developers to create customized apps without any technical assistance. The interactive drag-and-drop interface encourages non-developer teams to develop web-based and mobile-based applications that sustain all their needs easily. Zoho provides support for analyzing data, generating reports, and integrating with 3rd party applications.

Alternate Options for No-Code App Development Platforms

If you are looking for an alternative to top no-code app development platforms software, there are plenty of options available in the market, such as:

1. Quixy
2. Jotform Tables
3. Outgrow
4. Ninox
5. Zudy Vinyl
6. Kintone
7. Landbot
8. Knack
9. Bubble
10. Lumavate
11. Airslate
12. Stackby
13. Qalcwise
14. Xpoda
15. Stencyl

Conclusion

No-code app development platforms allow you to build apps fast & transform your business even faster without any prerequisite knowledge of programming and coding. You can outpace the market and the competition with the aforementioned intuitive tools that make app development simple.

The low-code development platforms provide the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for simple programming and thereby develop the application at a very fast pace & eliminates the conventional programming hurdles and challenges.

These platforms not only make coding easier but also enables quick setup and deployment.

Working Of Low-code App Development Platforms

These platforms don’t require you to write code line-by-line code. On the contrary, these platforms allow you to draw a flowchart, and the code will get ready accordingly. It makes the Code-development process faster than ever.

Benefits of Low-code App Development Tools

Low code development platforms possess many benefits and feasibilities, so more people get encouraged to participate in the application development process. In addition to that, these platforms enable organizations to improve their agility and reduce the complexity of the application development process. Low code platforms possess two primary benefits.

• Increased productivity
• Decreased cost

These benefits drive by the capability of low code development to develop more applications in a short period.

Also Read: What is No-Code Application Development?

The following visuals reveal the importance of low-code development platforms. Statistically, it accelerates the digital transformation by 69% and reduces the need for any prerequisite technical knowledge by 40%.

Top 5 Low-Code App Development Platforms in a Glance

Visual LANSA

Visual LANSA Pricing: Visual LANSA offers three variants in terms of pricing structure,

• Entry Level - $16.66 user/month
• Mid-tier - $13.34 user/month
• Enterprise - $8.34 user/month

LANSA’s low-code development tool accelerates and eases the development process of enterprise-level apps while allowing your employees to be more productive. LANSA provides you control when it comes to creativity.

‍Features:

• Provide a powerful low-code development environment to develop desktop, mobile, and web-based applications.
• Allow you to develop apps faster, easier, and at a lower cost than mainstream development methods.
• Enable you to perform scalable testing, deployment, and integration operations.
• Several thousand companies around the globe actively use apps developed on Lansa.
• Provide utility to write code inside the IDE.

Use Case:

‍ACBS is a division of Fidelity Information Services and a LANSA customer. The international leader provides state-of-the-art systems for initiating, servicing, trading, and regulating corporate loans, specifically large syndicated loans.“We use business analysts, not programmers, to develop our software, ” said the former Vice President, Sales at ACBS. “We have gone to great extremes to hire experienced bankers and business analysts for product design, development, and deployment. We assemble small teams of highly-trained professional developers which produce tightly-knit, controlled efforts and results.

‍Conclusion: Visual LANSA encourages professional developers to develop applications much faster than conventional coding practice while giving immense control rarely ever observed in low-code development platforms.

Appian

Price: A free trial is available for the Asian product, and it cost you around $90 per user per month for Standard Licensing. Appian’s enterprise-level automation tools help businesses develop smart applications that boost the growth process, customer engagement, and overall efficiency. It offers high scrutiny and security for your important applications.

‍Features

• Simple Drag and Drop interface.
• Provides AI utilities.
• It also offers no-code integration to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) platforms via Google Cloud, Amazon Web Service, and Microsoft Azure Cloud.
• Its code development interface allows you to integrate enterprise data, systems, and web services.

Use Case Ryder used Appian to create a smartphone’s first reservation system and reduced time-to-transaction to almost half. Bayer integrated different back-end modules for clinical trials and streamlines operations to reduce reporting time from hours to minutes.

‍Conclusion: Appian provides a low-code app development platform and an integrated development environment to sustain intelligent automation and low-code development.

Mendix

Price: Mendix’s community version is free of cost. It offers three paid variants.

• Single App - Starts at $1875 per month
• Pro - Starts at $5375 per month
• Enterprise - Starts at $7825 per month

Mendix provides the perfect low-code development environment to build apps for any device. It provides utilities like private cloud, public cloud, and on-premises deployment, automated backups. Its Enterprise edition allows horizontal scaling.‍

Features

• Agile project management
• Visual modeling utilities
• Integration of reusable components from existing models

Use Case: Rabobank improved its existing system by adding value to consumer-facing and digital customer experience using Mendix’s platform. This change was found to be revolutionary for the business as it reduced IT costs by 50%.

‍Conclusion: Mendix provides a rapid app development environment with offline working tools and quick adaptability for anyone.

OutSystems

Price: OutSystems offer a free version for a lifetime with basic tools and utilities. There are two more variants.

• Enterprise plan - starts at $6250 per month
• Universal plan - starts at $15000 per month

OutSystems enables you to create applications quickly. It can be used for developing Mobile Apps, Web-based Apps, and Enterprise-level applications.

‍Features:

• Offers error-free deployment of apps on cloud or on-premises.
• Interactive dashboard for real-time performance visuals and graphs
• The perfect tool to develop highly scalable applications
• Security for applications and app data
• Allow development of apps that can be integrated with any system or device

Use Case: The city of Oakland used OutSystems to transform services for citizens with a single sign-in portal digitally. Humana developed a customer utility app to help citizens find COVID-19 test locations.

‍Conclusion: It has become easier for developers and non-developers to quickly create smart applications using OutSystems Rapid Application Development Platform.

GeneXus

GeneXus Pricing: Pricing charges for the number of end-users irrespective of the number of apps being created. A free trial is available for the product. Paid variants include:

• For Entry-Level Users - starting $100/month
• For Independent Software Houses - starting $250/month
• For Enterprise-grade apps development - starting $900/month

Features:

• AI-driven, highly automated software development
• Multi-Experience apps can integrate with multiple platforms such as responsive and progressive web-based applications, Mobile-based and hybrid applications, chatbots & virtual assistants.
• Offers high flexibility by allowing system integration with several database platforms available in the market.
• Support evolutionary processes within the developed systems over long periods and switch between technologies automatically.
• Business Process Management (BPM)  modeling that Supports Digital Process Automation
• Freedom to deploy apps on cloud or on-premises.
• High level of security for apps.

Conclusion: GeneXus provides a perfect platform to sustain the modern time requirements of users. It’s an all-in-one platform that can match the criteria of both present and near-future technologies without the need to acquire skills for different technologies for different tasks. GeneXus encourages non-developers to start creating and innovating and developers to learn, adapt and apply quickly in an agile way.

Conclusion

The mutual advantage of these low-code app development platforms is to help businesses and developers respond quickly to the evolving market trends amidst the increased need to develop internal workflow applications, customer care platforms, integration mechanisms, and automation. These platforms and tools are not intended to end the flavor of coding from the developers’ cuisine but to add value to developers’ life by boosting their ability to develop (not just code) and encouraging them to develop world-class applications.

For individuals and businesses who wish to develop applications for their ventures, coding is their nightmare. But now, they can have their dish served with fewer spices.

‍Welcome to the era of no-code application development.

‍As the name suggests, we have come across the opinion of many IT aspirants who say that it is too astonishing to be true. It sounds like daydreaming, but it exists. When you dig deeper and extract more information regarding how it works, you will be surprised that it wasn’t coined earlier. No-code development platforms are undoubtedly the future of development, and the end is already here.

No-code development - In a Nutshell

No-code development involves simple operations like drag-and-drop and choosing from the given utilities to develop an app. Thus, the scheme is a visual platform that enables people with zero knowledge about coding or programming to develop a full-scale app.

Ever since the world steps into the digital era, developers’ teams deemed as a frontline force. As a result, their demand has skyrocketed with time, and so does the use of no-code development platforms worldwide. In modern times, with the digital revolution is molding every industry and field, the demand is much higher than ever. This demand upsurge is triggering anxiety in businesses as they would like to adapt to this digital transformation; they cannot afford or find skilled It experts who can drive this change within their organization.

Experts have restlessly been finding a way to reduce this supply-demand gap and burden of finances by suggesting a platform that allows businesses and their employees to develop apps without any prerequisite knowledge or the need for training. This is why no-code development is a game-changer, and the market is evolving rapidly.

Will no-code software replace experienced developers?

Although non-expert staff members can quickly adapt to the no-code environment without assistance or training and effectively deliver enterprise-level applications, experienced technical developers will remain in the picture with slightly different and molded roles. Instead of replacing experienced developers, no-code platforms will allow them to drive governance and focus on higher-level tasks such as improving and building platforms to carry out no-code development and security and scalability of applications delivered by no-code development.  

What can you build with no-code?

Now you got an idea about what no-code application development is. But we wouldn’t rely on something that doesn’t give us what we want and add value to the existing utilities.

No-code development is the magic wand. They offer a multitude of possibilities to develop any kind of application as per business requirements. All you need to have is just an idea and an intelligent no-code development platform. Then, you can implement it in hours or days. Some of the applications that you can build using no-code development include:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Project and Task Management
• Travel and Budget Management
• Human Resource Management System (HRMS)
• Staff Management
• Asset Management
• Websites, eCommerce Stores, and Portals
• Mobile Applications

Features of the best no-code development platforms

According to Gartner, no-code/low-code platforms are among the top 10 highs casting contrasting shadows on infrastructure and workflow in 2020. It also reveals that no-code is the future of development. This is because the platform helps in meeting the never-ending demand for app development. Now different questions are going to pop up in your mind. How much can no-code development offer? Why are they so appealing? Let’s find out by discussing their most notable features.

1. User Interface builder

You can build a complete web page with a drag and drop function. Everything that ranges from the header to the footer, the form, tables, and images can be integrated on a page within a few steps. As an output, you will get a web page as per your imagination. If you want further scalability and expansion, you can also merge your web page with a framework such as Angular2.

2. Workflow modeling

Workflow modeling is not just fast, and it is also entertaining. It allows you to handle all your data effortlessly without putting your effort into coding.

3. Reusability

Imagine using multiple small segments of a particular application to build a new one. To employ this utility, everyone is gearing up for no-code development as it allows you to use the part of other’s applications to build their app. Again, all these practices demand absolutely no tech knowledge or experience.

4. Integrations

From Twitter to Slack and everything involved, you can integrate with your no-code app and fully streamline the processes. This utility is particularly attractive as it eliminates the need for human intervention and removes complex Excel sheets in the process.

5. Mobile capabilities

The top no-code app development platforms offer layout compatibility with mobile devices. It means you can determine how your app appears and works on mobile devices and make necessary alterations accordingly. It is crucial to consider this aspect, as it is estimated that 3 billion smartphone users exist today.

6. Reports and analytics

No-code development platforms provide an additional treatment along with all the great utilities that no-code offers; you get to produce customized reports & insights and receive them as and how you want them to appear. In addition, it means that all the analytical insights throughout the process can be saved and displayed visually.

Benefits of no-code application development

Here’s another catalyst for your interest and excitement. With the notable benefits of adopting no-code app development, there will be no door left for you to leave this amazing development environment. So let’s discuss those benefits.

1. Anyone can build

The primary and most important benefit has already been discussed in this article as a spirit of No-code development. It is a fact that anyone can develop apps using no-code development platforms easily. You are not required to have technical experience or any prerequisite knowledge about coding or programming.

2. Reduced costs

Professional developers don’t settle for the less. They charge a very high amount for their services. As No-code allows everyone to have their hands on development, it results in reduced costs. Secondly, it saves your work hours and efforts, which interns translate into less expenditure in the long run.

3. Reduced time

As we have discussed earlier, developing apps via no-code development platforms are fast and quick. A decent app can take only an hour to complete.

4. Excellent agility

Agility is always a savior in any development process. No-code development affirms agility by streamlining everything from development to testing. It allows the teams to have their hands on actual work instead of wasting it preparing for work. Also, if you are required to roll back any step, make changes, or update, you can do it quickly without being bothered to change any logs or code lines, etc.

5. Enhanced innovation

No-code development lessens the burden on the IT sector by allowing every individual to develop their apps. It pushes them to try their innovative ideas and turn them into digital reality.

6. Business alignment

When the employees linked with internal operations and core business tasks engage themselves in app development, inefficiencies reduce up to a large extent because they have experience working across different departments, and they are well aware of the problems. This helps align business goals with digital solutions and reduce the chances of any clash and failures.

7. Rogue IT risk alleviation

Rogue IT means the unsanctioned information technology resources within any facility. The use of no-code development platforms, when implemented with a pre-planned strategy, policies, and assistance from the centralized IT staff, bring accountability to the rogue IT activities, turning them into a regulated mechanism for the greater good.

Comparing no-code development with alternatives

1. No-code development vs. custom development

While custom software development has its perks, no second thought is that no-code development is quick and cheap. According to statistics, a custom software application development takes months, requires much more sophisticated development and maintenance, and more than 80% of them fail to meet the project deadline. However, as far as no-code development is concerned, the overall aspects of no-code apps are positive regarding quick availability, costs, and maintenance.On the other hand, the extreme scalability of custom app development may be suitable for businesses with thousands of users and require more complex functionality in digital solutions.

2. No-code application development vs. COTS

More advanced and updated products are required in dynamic market conditions that meet the demands of evolving industry patterns. A lack of freedom in terms of scalability and changes can clog your entire business process in the long run.No-code development lessens this burden by allowing businesses to freely customize and build an app that exactly meets their needs and can be elastic enough to be changed easily with their evolving business requirements.

3. No-code development vs. low-code development

Now, this is the most frequently discussed aspect. Most companies get confused and think that both terms can be used interchangeably. But this is not the case. Low-code development requires minimal coding, while no-code doesn’t require coding at all. Apart from the requirement of at least basic coding skills for low-code development, some other parameters differentiate these two development models. Such as:

Conclusion

The demand for digital solutions is increasing with every passing day that the IT industry fails to supply. There are not enough software developers on board to meet the increasing demand. This supply-demand gap is fueling high costs, and no-code is the ultimate solution to these problems.No-code application development is the future of rapid application development, and the future is already here.

While we are all preparing worldwide to deal with the coronavirus epidemic in numerous respects, businesses worldwide have been affected. Many startups are struggling to sell their products hence nearing a downfall.

We have our approach, vision, and strategy while working on a product. The process can sometimes encounter a crisis. It may be a positive crisis like a vast potential client who might need new features to be introduced quite rapidly to attract them, or a poor crisis, for example, a crucial issue in the manufacturing system or a global pandemic.

How do you manage a product when your company is facing a time of crisis? We will be sharing some useful tips in this article that you may pick to gain stability and sales for your product(s).

How to Manage a Product in a Time of Crisis

Find your Product’s Strengths

While the crisis triggers a great deal of damage, it also provides good opportunities as the goals and requirements change. Those fluctuations, as during the COVID-19 crisis, are immense as the behaviors of many people change suddenly, and massive sums of money and resources are refocused on different needs. You can use this time to use your strengths. Some qualities are specific to your product or service, and you need to work harder to figure out how your product does well and how it would solve the new problems or be productive for people in crisis management.

This change helps businesses adjust, switch direction, or even recreate themselves if needed to resolve this crisis much more flexibly. New technology can also be utilized to make your product more secure and can offer a tremendous advantage.

Understand your Customer

You need to focus on how a crisis has affected your customer; you should develop product-based strategies to tackle those problems and help your customers. Thinking about your customer's needs and reshaping your approach to match their requirements will ultimately increase sales and give you more potential clients. Your database and previous records will provide useful knowledge regarding your consumers that will let you understand their needs. Evaluate your customers' records, as it holds a lot of useful information. Check for trends to see how the consumers usually place orders. You can also evaluate your product's performance using that information. You may conduct a customer satisfaction survey to give you useful insights and make your customer feel valued. Inform your customers when you make any changes or improvements based on their feedback. In addition to requesting reviews, create a consumer contact program to ensure you stay in communication with your consumers.

Pay Attention

The number of queries and demands bursts during a crisis. You would potentially face budget, supply, advertising, and many more queries. Consider what you and your organization do to remain focused on the primary goals. Your priorities will change during a crisis. For your product to perform best, study your competitors, focus on your strengths and productivity. Make use of your team's efforts and strengths. Besides seeking new recruitment opportunities, boost the distribution and marketing activities. This will allow you to satisfy changing customer demands. You will benefit from reduced promotional rates when other brands reduce their promotions in the crisis.

Product Planning

Product planning is an element of the development process of each product. It encourages the stable production of goods because it can measure potential risks and challenges. Project managers use product planning principles in their job to produce better strategies and results. Better product planning in a crisis will lead to better results. A good stock forecasting and management framework allows better handling of inventory and thus decreases investments. Product planning also tends to manage raw materials efficiently and helps to enable more profitable purchases. Product Planning makes the usage of existing capital and inputs into the manufacturing process effective. One of the advantages of product planning is eliminating waste of usable money and the efficient allocation of necessary resources.

Build Trust

People look for transparent products in times of crisis to help them in fulfilling their requirements. The pandemic has made people conscious of what they are buying and if it satisfies their needs or not. You may be able to sell a few copies of your product by false advertisements, but you can't get away with it. A few bad reviews can destroy your product's image in the market. You can follow the below practices to gain your customers' trust:

• Demonstrate results
• Ask for Feedback
• Good Customer Service
• Content Marketing
• Share Best Practices
• Loyalty Programs
• Be Transparent
• Pur Your Customers First
• Build Social Proof

Wrapping it Up

The right product in a time of crisis will ultimately be the one that would readily solve your customer's issues. You need to focus on your planning and processing stages and make any changes, whenever appropriate, to suit the current needs. The tips mentioned in this article can help you explore a new perspective and help you manage product in crisis.

In this article, we'll discuss why Agile for software development is an ideal approach while working remotely. Being Stuck in traffic, face-to-face demonstrations, and meetings, and a little gossip session at the coffee table in office – Before 2020 this was a routine for every employed individual. After COVID-19, to contain the spread of the virus, people around the world are forced to work remotely from their homes: a new normal for the world. To fulfill the communication gap, conventional teamwork routines need to be revised. Although remote work is not part of agile methodology like scrum, the adaptation of agile methodology can make remote work more efficient.

Benefits Of Scrum and Sprint

Agile Methodology is based on procedures like Scrum and Sprint meetings. Sprint meetings are carried out to schedule activities for the near future. The breakdown of the whole project into sub-tasks allows the stakeholders and product owner to mutually plan the deliverables for the upcoming weeks. Scrum meetings are scheduled daily with the team in which every team member demonstrates the progress of their part and any possible blockage. All these reports are shared with the product owner to avoid any redundancy or clash. Remote teams specifically enjoy the perks of this methodology as it doesn't leave any void for errors caused by miscommunication and the progress of remote team members can be easily monitored with this methodology.

Agile Methodology In A Nutshell

Agile methodology was originally designed for software development now used in many other fields to improve productivity. The methodology first coined at the start of the 21st century as mainstream project management practices experienced the defects in the waterfall model while dealing with lengthy and complex projects. The waterfall model is a linear model that completes a project by finishing one phase after another whereas the overall roadmap is already determined at the start of the project. On the other hand, the agile methodology provides a dynamic roadmap, due to its adaptability and flexibility.

Benefits of Agile for Software Development

Since Agile Methodology can be implied to any area, it has become crucial for remote teams to follow the Agile Development Methodology, which has brought up modern-day Remote Agile Teams. Let’s discuss in detail how Agile Methodology benefits remote teams.

Transparent Objectives

While working with remote employees the product owners usually fail to create clear milestones. Instead, they just order a product or service, and when things crash both sides experience failure. While with Agile the product owners partially act as stakeholders (due to scrum routine) and the whole team set up the roadmap for the project by setting out clear milestones. This level of flexibility allows the remote teams to work from different continents and remain goal-oriented. Making milestones clear also assists in dodging most of the probable hurdles by filtering out the inputs and output first.

Diversity and Freedom

Remote teams can enjoy the overwhelming diversity and fully acknowledge the overall mindset of other team members. Isolated team members lack the same level of creativity and experience which can be very useful for the growth of themselves as well as the organization. Agile supports sharing ideas as it provides an organized base to get the work done as per requirements. While Agile is not immune to the changes that the team suggests thus promote diversity by enabling the freedom of expression for all remote teams.

Flexibility

The primary feature of Agile for software development is flexibility as seen in all other features directly or indirectly. Due to remote work, it becomes mandatory to go for it. Remote teams have different skillsets and working taboos but if we allow the agile methodology to join the room all teams can be made flexible and co-operating. Agile Teams and product owners become more synchronized for successful and on-time completion of the project and due to flexibility offered by Agile methodology, any undesired or unpredictable circumstances can be foreseen and avoided.

Time Factor

A project is defined as something that has a starting date and an ending date. It shows the importance of the time factor in any project. Agile promises you the opportunity to do the work done within the designated time frame. By adopting the agile methodology you get a more picture of milestones and a transparent roadmap with the flexible team so you can surely meet the strict deadlines and it becomes much easier for the remote teams to make timely deliveries.

Reduced Risks and Errors

Remote work routines are highly vulnerable to errors and damages because of communication gaps and time zone differences. But working with dependable Agile Teams, you can dilute the risks of failure. It can save the project from any plausible damage. From the investment risks to productivity risks these risks are not a problem anymore due to the immense level of transparency and connectivity by agile methodology. Primarily due to consistent feedback and responses from the product owners, the risks for any kind of imbalances or damages afterward can be eliminated simultaneously and it also paves the way for the team to mark progress.

Agile Project Management Tools

Agile took over the world like a pandemic. Many organizations have started thinking that it can be a potential tool to help in project management because of its promising results. There exist a variety of agile project management tools in the market among them two most detailed agile project management tools are Jira and Yodiz. Both are very customizable, but Yodiz surpasses Jira when it comes to cost-friendly choices. These tools are heaven for remote teams and allow them to connect and adopt agile principles.

Conclusion

The adaptation of agile methodology is a prolonged process that must be welcomed by the entire team. The role of team leaders also plays a critical role in making the agile routine a new normal for their team members. Although the cultural change in organizations is not something that happens overnight if everyone keeps putting his/her part of the effort and works collaboratively it’s not something that can’t be achieved. In the Post-COVID19 world, Scrum and other agile methodologies proved to be sunshine in dark to keep the team collaboration active despite the long distances, strict lockdown, and remote work. By adapting and merging the aforementioned features and benefits of agile in your project can open new corridors of success for your organization. This way the containment measures and obligation to work remotely also possess an opportunity to mark success in the form of agile methodology – Go Agile.