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Low-code development

  • Glossary

"Low-code development"

This glossary explains various keywords that will help you understand the mindset necessary for data utilization and successful DX.
This time, let's take a look at "low-code development," which is expected to become an important element in the future use of IT in business settings.

What is low-code development?

Low-code development, or a low-code development environment, allows you to develop applications and other things with just a small amount of coding and GUI operations, instead of writing full source code as in traditional programming.
It is attracting attention as a way to alleviate the shortage of IT engineers while the need for IT in business is increasing, as a way to increase development productivity, and as a way to enable development to be undertaken even with limited programming skills.

[Kumo Radio] What's the difference between "no-code," "low-code," and "non-programming"? (3 minutes 49 seconds)

Vtubers Kumoko and Haruka deliver the latest IT information in an easy-to-understand manner. In this video, they explain the differences between "no-code," "low-code," and "non-programming."

Previously: "We first need engineers" and "Development takes time."

In the past, when trying to fully utilize IT, it was necessary to first secure programmers and then request development work from engineers. Development using full-scale programming takes time, and it was often difficult for IT system development work to fully meet the many demands that arise in business.

It is not easy to secure engineers with professional skills, and the time it takes for engineers to develop systems leads to increased business costs. Furthermore, if development takes time every time something is made possible through IT, the IT system will not be able to fully meet business demands, and the speed of business will slow down.

Given this situation, there was a need to improve development productivity, achieve rapid system development, and enable system development even with limited programming skills.

This is why low-code development environments have started to attract attention. They are now being used as a means to streamline development work by allowing development work to be done with just a small amount of coding, or by combining development work on a GUI.

Low-code development examples

Low-code development is used in a variety of fields.

Use in UI development: Efficiently develop the "look and feel" of your application

There has traditionally been a low-code development environment that boasts the ability to create the "user interface part" without the need for full-scale coding.

The user interface part, for example, in a desktop application that runs on Windows, refers to the visual parts of the application, such as the window, input areas on the window, and buttons.

For example, in the early days of Windows, if you wanted to develop a Windows application, you had to write the parts that displayed and operated the GUI directly in a programming language, which was a time-consuming process that called on OS functions directly. Not only was this time-consuming and unproductive, but it also made it difficult to understand what the application you were developing looked like just by reading the source code.

As a result, an environment was created in which it was possible to develop a GUI with just a small amount of coding, or to develop the GUI part by simply designing the appearance visually on the GUI and then providing additional coding.

Naturally, similar problems exist when creating the screen display of smartphone apps and the HTML portion of web apps that is displayed in a web browser.Furthermore, there is a current need to eliminate the hassle of releasing applications for multiple environments, such as releasing multi-platform applications that combine web and smartphone apps.

Low-code development involves efforts to streamline and speed up the development of the "visual" aspects of software, as well as to enable intuitive development of the user interface, even by non-highly skilled engineers.

Database and application development

There are efforts underway to make it possible to create and operate databases and develop database-based applications quickly and efficiently, without the need for full-scale coding, such as with tools like "FileMaker," "kintone," or "Microsoft Access."

Some are designed with the idea that they require almost no coding and could be classified as "no-code," while others still require the writing of program code but allow for efficient development with limited coding.

Various development frameworks can also be considered a type of low-code

Many programming-related initiatives have been undertaken to enable efficient development with less coding than if you were to code everything yourself, or to enable development without advanced skills.

In the past, the use of high-level development languages (such as COBOL and BASIC) over low-level development languages (such as assembler) was one example of this. Even more recently, web development frameworks (such as Ruby on Rails) for web application development and game engines, which are increasingly being used in game development, can be seen as efforts to achieve efficient development with a small amount of code, or to reduce the difficulty of development.

When you hear the terms no-code or low-code, you might get the impression that they are simple methods for people without skills. However, many low-code development environments, in particular, have been established as a means of increasing development productivity, and there is even room for them to be used as an efficiency or auxiliary tool for highly skilled engineers and full-scale development projects, allowing them to efficiently utilize their skills in essential or high-value-added areas.

The business impact of low-code development

Let's consider the benefits of using a low-code development environment from a business perspective.

Rapid and flexible development of IT systems

Compared to full-scale coding (scratch development), development can be completed in a shorter period of time, and functional changes and additions can be made quickly after development. This significantly shortens the time it takes for IT investments to produce results, and it makes it easier to continue making necessary modifications, making it easier to maintain the value of IT assets.

In an era where the speed of change in various aspects of business is accelerating, it is desirable for the IT systems that support business to be able to respond quickly to changes.

Lowering the cost of software development and the barriers to securing talent

It is expected that development costs will be reduced because systems can be developed efficiently. In addition, depending on the low-code development environment, engineers who do not have a full set of development skills can be active in development, making it easier to secure human resources.

This has the potential to smooth out IT human resource efforts, whether it's handing over the personnel in charge of the system after development, increasing staff to expand the scale of development when going on the offensive in business, or reskilling internal personnel.

Ability to carry out (or something close to) full-scale system development

There are various methods that claim to make development easy, but the trade-off for simplicity is that you can only do simple things, which can sometimes happen with no-code development.On the other hand, low-code development can make development much more efficient and reduce the skills required for development while still enabling development that is not much different from regular system development.

Full-scale IT systems that support business tend to require full-scale functionality and reliable operation. This is expected to be a means of improving development productivity while maintaining the standards required by the business.

Considering the difference between no-code and low-code

Another term that is difficult to distinguish from "low-code development" is "no-code development." They are sometimes used in similar situations, and there are situations where it's unclear which term to use.

In general, I think that no-code is often used in situations where the emphasis is on not having to write code, while low-code is often used in situations where the emphasis is on improving development productivity.

See also
⇒ Glossary: No-Code Development

"Is it easy?" "Do they have high development capabilities?"

No-code is often promoted as being "easy" by symbolizing the fact that "you don't have to write source code." However, whether or not you write code is actually a different matter from whether it's "easy" (or "for engineers").

There are no-code products that have the same capabilities as a programming language, and there are also low-code products that require you to write source code but use simple syntax that is easy to learn and use.

Furthermore, "simple" does not necessarily mean "low capability (limited development capabilities)." While something may have easy-to-use features, it may also be capable of performing difficult tasks if you are determined to master it.

  • The presence or absence of source code is not the same as "ease"
  • "Easy" is a different matter from "low ability (limited development capabilities)."

Source code as development capabilities and freedom of development

In the no-code development environment, coding is seen as something "difficult" and should be eliminated. From this perspective, low-code development environments may appear to be products that do not do enough to eliminate the need for code.

This may come as a surprise to non-engineers, but engineers often see "not having to write code" or "not being able to write code" as a "negative factor." This is because it can appear to be an unsettling development environment that leaves no room for coding to solve problems if necessary (in an emergency).

  • Having the space to write code is sometimes emphasized as a high degree of freedom in what can be created through development.

However, being able to write code does not necessarily mean that you have a high degree of freedom in development, and not being able to write code does not necessarily mean that you cannot create an environment where you can do things.

  • What's important isn't whether or not there is source code, but rather "how much can be made" or "whether the production ability is high or low."

"Development ability" is also a way for engineers to improve their skills

For example, suppose you could develop a system easily, quickly, and at low cost using no-code. At first glance, this may seem ideal, but development that requires no skills may not encourage the growth of engineers or the development of their skills (for the same reason that outsourcing development is considered bad).

"How much you can create" and "high or low level of development ability" also mean that there is room for engineers to grow and demonstrate their skills in development. Being able to code encourages the growth of engineers from an organization's perspective, and for engineers, it allows for a more meaningful career path.

  • There should be room for engineers to develop and grow, and to do advanced things.

But equally, having a development environment where you can write code is not the same thing.

  • Having code or not is not the same thing as having an environment that allows you to build as your capabilities improve.

No code is also beneficial for engineers

So far, I've written about the meaning of being able to write code. But does that mean that not being able to code is meaningless for engineers?

Even if you like to write your own code, there are probably not many people who are happy to read code written by others. No-code development has the advantage that you can understand the development intent without having to decipher the source code.

For example, in an environment where you can develop a GUI visually, you can immediately tell what kind of app you're creating just by looking at it. Even if you don't have a GUI, if you're developing data integration on the GUI, for example, if there's an icon for reading data from Salesforce and an icon for writing data to kintone, you can get a general idea of what you're doing.

  • Even for skilled engineers, combining "no-code" methods can make development simpler and smoother.

What low-code development aims to achieve in improving productivity

Let's reorganize our low-code initiatives

  • Improve development productivity
  • Achieving rapid system development
  • Enabling system development even with limited programming skills
    -It is desirable that the development is easy and has a low barrier to development (but this is not the most important thing)
    -On the other hand, if you want to develop something in detail, it is also desirable to have the ability to carry out full-scale development.
  • It keeps the advantages of writing source code.
  • It also combines well with the advantage of not writing source code.

Also, rather than general-purpose low-code development environments, there are various low-code development environments that are specialized for a specific purpose. For example,

  • User Interface Development
  • Database Development
  • External communication and collaboration processes, such as inter-system collaboration

For example, you could build a solid foundation for the business logic and stable operation of your business system, but efficiently create the user interface in a low-code development environment, or have engineers on the front lines develop the parts of the business that change frequently using kintone or FileMaker themselves.You can use low-code or no-code products according to the purpose and situation, and work to utilize them in a way that suits your needs.

"iPaaS" efficiently realizes integrated processing with external systems and data

In order to streamline this type of development and achieve flexible changes and rapid development of IT systems, it is important to consider using it to streamline the "integration processing with external systems and data" that is involved in many system developments.

Not only with applications that we have developed ourselves from scratch, but also with systems that we have developed in-house using kintone, for example, we often need to import data from Excel that is used in each department, or to transfer data to and from Salesforce, or to data integration with external systems.

It's common to manually import and export CSV files, and this is often taken for granted. However, when trying to eliminate this inefficiency through conventional programming, it can be difficult to achieve efficient development. Each data integration requires technical research and development of a different connection destination, and each requires different know-how regarding high-speed processing, error retry methods, and stable operation.

This is where a means of connecting various clouds, systems, and data comes in handy, without the need to write and develop source code yourself. For example, you can use connecting technologies such as DataSpider and HULFT Square, also known as EAI, ETL, and iPaaS.

Linkage processing can be implemented efficiently using only a GUI

Unlike regular programming, there is no need to write code. By placing and configuring icons on the GUI, you can achieve integrated processing with a wide variety of systems and data.

Being able to develop using a GUI is also an advantage

​No-code development using only a GUI makes the implemented process clear. For example, just by looking at the icons for reading from Salesforce and writing to kintone, you can roughly understand what the process is.

Furthermore, the connection function itself has the technical know-how required for linking to each connection destination, so there is no need for you to understand the technical details for each connection destination. Everything necessary to achieve high processing performance and stable operation is built in from the start.

Not only does it make the implementation of integration processing more efficient, it also eliminates the need for the difficult task of deciphering source code when carrying out maintenance development or derivative development. Compared to reading source code that is implemented individually for each connection destination, the amount of work that needs to be deciphered is significantly reduced.

Full-scale processing can be implemented

There are many products that claim to allow development using only a GUI, but some people may have a negative impression of such products as being too simple.

It is true that things like "it's easy to make, but it can only do simple things," "when I tried to execute a full-scale process it couldn't process and crashed," or "it didn't have the high reliability or stable operating capacity to support business operations, which caused problems" tend to occur.

"DataSpider" and "HULFT Square" are easy to use, but also allow you to create processes at the same level as full-scale programming. They have the same high processing power as full-scale programming, as they are internally converted to Java and executed, and have a long history of supporting corporate IT. They combine the benefits of "GUI only" with the proven track record and full-scale capabilities for professional use.

It has everything you need as a "data infrastructure" that can be entrusted with implementing data integration

Of course, you need the ability to connect to a wide variety of data sources, and you also need high processing power to process large amounts of data to support actual business operations. At the same time, flexible and rapid development capabilities can also be important.

Generally speaking, if you want high performance or advanced processing, you will need to implement it using full-scale programming or you will end up with a tool that is difficult to use, while if you want ease of use in the field, you will end up with a tool that is easy to use but has low processing power and can only perform simple processing.

In addition, it is also desirable to have advanced access capabilities to a wide variety of data sources, especially to legacy IT systems such as mainframes and non-modern data sources such as on-site Excel, as well as the ability to access the latest IT such as the cloud. Developing these on your own would require a technical understanding of these connections, which can be quite a challenge.

While there are many methods that meet only one of these conditions, successful data utilization requires meeting all of them. Moreover, there are not many methods for achieving data integration that have the advantage of being able to be used efficiently using only a GUI, and that combine the high performance and reliability of a professional tool.

Has a long track record

In no-code and low-code development environments, as well as in programming languages and development frameworks, we are always concerned about whether the tools we use for development will be maintained over the long term.

Even if a cool technology is trendy, adopting it after a few years will soon lead to problems if it is no longer maintained. Business systems are often used over the long term, so it is important to be able to expect long-term support.

DataSpider has been supported and developed for over 20 years. During that time, it has been used as a means of supporting corporate IT, and its functions have been continuously enhanced to accommodate new technologies.

No need to operate in-house as it is a cloud service iPaaS

DataSpider can be operated securely on a system under your own management. With HULFT Square, a cloud service (iPaaS), this "connecting" technology itself can be used as a cloud service without the need for in-house operation, eliminating the hassle of in-house implementation and system operation.

Related keywords (for further understanding)

  • EAI
    • It is a concept of "connecting" systems by data integration, and is a means of freely connecting various data and systems. It is a concept that has been used since long before the cloud era as a way to effectively utilize IT.
  • ETL
    • In the recent trend of actively working on data utilization, the majority of the work is not the data analysis itself, but rather the collection and preprocessing of data scattered in various places, from on-premise to cloud.
  • iPaaS
    • A cloud service that "connects" various clouds with external systems and data simply by operating on a GUI is called iPaaS.
  • No-code development
    • No-code development, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from low-code development, is based on the premise that no code is written, but it is not simply a simple tool that allows you to do so without writing code; the significance of business use and the nature of the product can be different.

If you are interested in our "Connecting" initiative,

If you are interested, please try out our products that solve IT system and business problems by using the concept of "connecting."

The ultimate tool for connecting data: DataSpider, data integration software

"DataSpider," data integration tool developed and sold by our company, is a "connecting" tool with a long history of success.

Unlike regular programming, development can be done using only the GUI (no code), without writing code. This means that it can be used by business personnel who have a good understanding of the business and can grasp the specific issues surrounding their company's silo structure.

There are many tools available that allow simple integration, but this tool is easy to use, even for non-programmers, as it only has a GUI, and it also has "high development productivity" and "full-scale performance that can serve as the foundation for business (professional use)." It can smoothly solve the problem of "connecting disparate systems and data," which is hindering the successful use of IT.

We offer a free trial version and hold online seminars where you can try out the software for free, so we hope you will give it a try.

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