FOREWORD

For more than 50 years, Project Management Institute (PMI) has been supporting project professionals in turning ideas into reality, and now we're amplifying our impact on the profession and society by a factor of 10—a simple, yet extremely challenging, ambition.

To achieve this goal, PMI is driving innovation and developing new means by which individuals and organizations can continue to be successful. As we did 50 years ago with project management, PMI is leading the way for changemakers and new ways of working to get things done.

Imagine a world where any businessperson can develop an app without having to write computer code. Imagine a workforce enabled to become self-sufficient, solving problems and developing solutions in a structured and controlled way with minimal risk. Imagine organizations attaining freedom from expensive and time-consuming traditional software development. Imagine increasing the IT department's productivity by more than 50%. This is the world of citizen development.

Citizen development is positioned to form an integral part of the next wave of business transformation and will capitalize on both the digital and data revolutions we are currently experiencing. We will witness the rise of citizen developers in the workplace as technologies advance. Technologies, such as automation, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) have eliminated much of the complexities involved in meeting the ever-increasing needs of end users. By enabling nonspecialists to create their own solutions, citizen development tools, such as no-code/low-code applications, are empowering the entire workforce—not just the technologists. The creation of enterprise-grade, complex, automated, and systemized workflow processes is now more than just an IT discipline. Business users can do it themselves, without the need to understand coding languages.

With these tools, business users are empowered to turn their ideas into reality—something PMI endeavors to support.

More and more organizations are enabling business process owners, project managers, and business analysts to be proficient in using no-code/low-code software applications, removing traditional bottlenecks in the solutioning process. Savings are measured in terms of months instead of years, or days instead of weeks, and this is fueling the movement as organizations around the world consider replacing expensive, licensed software with tailor-made solutions.

However, there are barriers to accessing this value. To really benefit from no-code/low-code technology, you have to enable people outside of IT. This introduces risks—security, data protection, storage, systems integration, version control, and so on—that are vital considerations for any organization. To seek further adoption, organizations must create a controlled and secure technical environment with accepted protocols that can be applied by departments in the organization and governed by IT.

If implemented correctly, citizen development should democratize the software development process, providing end users with infinite opportunities for value creation. There must be guardrails, standards, and governance put in place that are acceptable to the business and designed in such a way to avoid the proliferation of complexity within the organization.

To get this absolutely right, we have involved leading experts in the field of citizen development from the world over, integrating their knowledge and experience with PMI's deep project management expertise. We have developed and tested a suite of specific methodologies and frameworks designed to guide enterprises in adopting citizen development and scaling its use across the organization.

With this book, you will learn what it takes to gain a solid foundation in citizen development. You will understand the practical applications of no-code/low-code platforms and the opportunities they present, whether you are a developer, running a business, or simply an end user. It will help you determine how to put the right governance in place, support you in creating a culture of best practice and enablement, and inform you on the key building blocks required to drive value from citizen development.

Welcome to a new revolution—one in which any business user can become a changemaker!