Citizen Developers

Are you a Citizen Developer? 

Do you need quickly-developed, single-purpose applications? 

ServiceNow can help. You can meet business needs by developing and publishing cloud-based applications that replace manual tasks with optimized workflows and a consistent user experience.

A Citizen Developer is a person either outside the IT department, or a less-technical application administrator who creates new, usually small-scale, applications for the organization using a “low code” development environment. ServiceNow provides such an environment with a couple of unique options for end users to create apps to solve their specific business problems.

The fact is, many organizations have the need for quickly-developed, single-purpose applications. A number of factors make the Citizen Developer approach attractive:

• You may have a group of legacy applications that were created locally on desktop software, but which have become important to the entire enterprise.
• These apps are now outdated, unsupported, and may represent security risks. 
•  Rewriting small apps as full-stack web applications may not make sense financially
• Some apps are department-specific, and wouldn’t meet the test for a corporate project.

There are some important and tangible benefits of enabling Citizen Developers in ServiceNow:

• Shortens the development cycle considerably for appropriate apps,. This removes the time constraint on development, particularly in the case of a large backlog of old applications awaiting rework.
• Moves the organization in the direction of DevOps. The resulting applications in ServiceNow can easily be managed in an abbreviated SDLC, with fast turnaround times on any changes. All the supporting functionality for documenting and implementing changes already exists in parallel with the new apps.
• Builds engagement and involvement between IT and groups within the business, breaking down old walls of bureaucracy.
•  Encourages wider participation in application rationalization, governance, and disaster recovery.

ServiceNow has some excellent features supporting aspiring developers:

1. Service Creator: This is a great way to convert an existing paper or web-based form that may be used by one group or department to a simple request in ServiceNow. A user may be designated as the owner of a category of related requests, and my designate other users on their team to modify or create new requests (services) within ServiceNow. The output of these forms goes to a special table for their team for fulfillment.
   While these services are not applications, ServiceNow offers the ability to convert an existing service to a full-fledged application when the group deems that appropriate.
   
   
2. Templated Applications – It is now possible to create a real application in ServiceNow without writing a line of code!
   You can create robust applications  from templates that are tailored to the type of app needed, and that offer three levels of Service Management provided by the platform. Things like approvals, assignment, task acceptance, document management, tie-ins to the Service Catalog and a dedicated Knowledge Base, dispatch notes and work notes are all available, based on the level selected. Mobile support is quick and easy.
   Further, you can tailor each aspect of a templated application via properties available to the local team. And, platform features such as Live Feed create a social media collaboration experience for users of the new app. Notifications are flexible and specific to the application, so your users get the right information. Finally, reporting is easy with the ServiceNow platform, so your leadership team and stakeholders are kept aware of status.

Here are some things to keep in mind when enabling your own Citizens:

Establish clear guidelines for:

• Who should be developing: Users with a particular role in the company, or who are designated by management, etc.
• Who will be the users, and what ServiceNow roles should be created for users who will be managing aspects of the new application? 
• What they should be developing: size, risk level and scope of app to be prioritized and approved by a review panel or other group such as project management
• Training and documentation requirements: work with the ServiceNow implementation team to correctly set up these users for success
• Review the current SDLC to consider modifications to accept this type of development in a rapid development category.
• Standard guidelines for application access, ACLs and notifications

Finally, work with an implementation team that empowers your organization and encourages innovation on the ServiceNow platform. We feel that the Citizen Developer capabilities provided by ServiceNow are an exciting adjunct to the platform and custom application capabilities of the system. We would love to talk to you about your application strategy, and how your team can fully participate.