DeveloperWeek 2017

Have you ever built something so completely sophisticated and cutting edge but then realized that you just committed yourself to maintaining that code long term?  You try to hire developers to maintain your project only to find that their rate is significantly higher because of the skill set required for your project.  That's the reality for far too many developers who try to push their project to the absolute cutting edge.

Taking a step back and looking at the project as a whole, most internal applications for business are little more than a simple web database with some system integrations.  A lot of time can be spent simply gathering requirements for the next project.  With QuickBase, you can get a lot more done by delegating most of the application development to business.  On the surface, the UI is simple and intuitive.  Common functions are easily found and support documentation is clear and readily abundant.  All of the of the prerequisites are in place for a low code self-service model for development.  Leaving you with more time to focus on the custom parts, not common to every web database.  And the freedom to move on from your past accomplishments.

The citizen developer model requires governance and advisement.  A few central players can advise tens or even hundreds of developers on design decisions and corporate standards.  This is orders of magnitude more productive than sourcing all internal web development to traditional web developers.  The citizen developer knows their own problem domain better than anyone.  This requires less meetings and less communication to see a project to completion.

Low code platforms can be a life saver, but sometimes a project has requirements beyond the native functionality of the platform.  My presentation covers a variety of techniques used to overcome these limits.

I hope you find my presentation stimulating.  If you end up with more questions than you did before you started, then I'll know that this was true.  I hope to have enough time towards the end to answer all your questions, otherwise come find me afterwards for an intriguing conversation.

Sincerely,
David Maskasky
Software Developer at Tesla