Hey IT - bring down those walls and let the users in

This year has exposed one of IT's biggest challenges inside the enterprise, and it's time for a change: We need to let the users inside the gated walls of  the IT department, grant  them  a seat at  IT's  table (yes, you read that right), and take advantage of new methodologies and tools to deliver software with greater speed and transparency.

Because, at the end of the day, aren't we all tech professionals now?

IT's always been  a  bit of a mystery to users. (I should know. I was a CIO before taking on the reins of CEO.) Most software developers and security pros  probably feel  it should stay that way: All those PEBKAC users ("problem exists between keyboard and chair")  can be dangerous, annoying,  and costly.

Here's the thing: These aren't your  grandmother's users  anymore. Today's users have nearly two decades'  worth of being accustomed to consumer-grade user experiences  outside of their day jobs, possessing  nearly omniscient  mobile devices in their hands , and  feeling  more comfortable  than ever  manipulating their digital  environments. (As technology professionals, shouldn't we actually be celebrating this?)

Put another way: Users  want what they want  when they want it.  And let's  just  forget  about  "Shadow IT." Users today are doing   their own  IT right out in the open - nobody's hiding  a thing.

For some businesses struggling  with staffing cuts  during COVID-19, this  development  has been critical to keeping the lights on.  I was recently sitting in a presentation about customer experience and its  proliferation, and  the imperative to address this  topic  struck me. So,  with all that in mind, here are  a couple  of  things that IT leaders and their teams can do today, and one big result that's attainable.

Pulling back the curtain 

IT's  reputation has improved over the years — that's my anecdotal assessment in talking to business leaders. But there's room to do better, and that's never been  truer  in 2020 as corporate agility and financial flexibility have  become  critical  principles  for continued  corporate  existence.

So, as I see it, IT needs to change from a place "where projects  often  go to die," to a place "where projects  always  go to thrive." Those are the words of far too many non-IT colleagues.

One way to do that is to ensure that users have a seat at the IT table. Let me be clear: the days of users having to fill out a 50-part form, hear "we'll get back to you in about six months," and then also hear that the price tag of said project is upward of $1 million, are long gone. To me, that famous scene from "The Wizard of Oz"  is applicable  in this case. (Spoiler alert.) As the great and powerful Oz's  true identity is revealed, he desperately  yells: "Pay no attention to  that man behind the curtain!" The gig is up.

Today's users  not only  want to  see the  women and men  behind the curtain pulling the levers;  they want to pull the levers themselves.

Rise of no- and low-code development  

Which leads me to this trend: the  surging  interest in no-code development for users and low-code development for the pros.

For clarification, this is how I define the two  approaches:

• No-code: citizen developers  who  can create lightweight  apps with lots of guard rails, training wheels,  and digital support.

• Low-code: reusable, consistent, and approved  automated tools  that make  professional software  developers'  lives a bit easier.

Here's why  there's a crunch right now, and why it's only going to intensify: "The problem is that we love data, databases, and software so much that there aren't enough software developers on the planet to keep up with the demand for extra application functionality, additional layers of integration, and brand-new apps built to suit as-yet-unknown use case requirements."  That sentiment is from ASUG Insights author Adrian Bridgwater, and he's spot on.

So, taken together — in small or vast  portions, as organizations deem appropriate-the power of no-code app-making for  swashbuckling  users combined with time-saving low-code options for the pros can  be a huge boon to anxious business users who are clamoring for faster  and  better  core applications and new software  bells and whistles.

Results may vary among the vendors offering services such as these, but one provider, Mendix, claims an ability to deliver SAP apps 10 times faster than traditional methods.

To be sure, it's  going to be a mix of both  no- and low-code, especially when considering enterprise software stacks.  But the results are  apparent: "All of this dramatically shortens the development time for creating an application, allowing companies to make progress with digitalization projects that would otherwise sit on the shelf due to competing demands on IT resources," writes  Christoph Garms, in a related diginomica post.

In the end…better business results 

What do we want?  Better business results. When do we want them? Yesterday.

A combination of targeted, transparent user involvement in IT software development and no- and low-code options for all interested parties  can  lead to improved IT-business relations, bette r optics  for IT departments  under duress, and better business results.  This is the innovation driver that we all talk about but find so elusive to deliver.

Jon  Scolamiero, who oversaw ConocoPhillips'  application development from 2015 to 2018, recently shared with CIO.com his success story.

"Scolamiero  implemented a low-code development platform from  Mendix, whose developers worked with ConocoPhillips data scientists to build  applications orchestrating data and analytics sources," writes CIO.com's Clint Boulton. "The solution helped the company boost oil production using less time and fewer resources." Energized by the app's success, ConocoPhillips crafted 20 more solutions.

"We delivered outsized business outcomes,"  Scolamiero  boasts to  CIO.com, adding that the results changed the conversation internally about IT's role in bolstering the business.  At ASUG, our webinars and events get into how these issues impact SAP product development and adoption. Recent member webinars, covering topics such as rapid app development on SAP Cloud Platform and SAP UI5, dive deeper into the impact of these types of tools on customers.

Changing the conversation, delivering  outsized business outcomes-well, wouldn't that be a great way to finish out 2020 and get a jump on 2021? It's time for IT  to  embrace the changes that will get our businesses where they need to go, faster than ever before.