The world of software development has undergone significant changes over the years, and one of the most intriguing developments is the rise of the ‘citizen developer’.
Citizen developers are non-professional developers who leverage low-code or no-code platforms to create business applications. Among these platforms, Microsoft Power Platform stands out as a revolutionary tool that has helped create and empower citizen developers.
However, as quickly as it rose, the citizen developer trend began to face challenges, eventually leading to its decline. There are different reasons for this, and it has also impacted the way low code technologies such as Microsoft Power Platform can be better utilised by businesses going forward.
The Rise: Empowering the citizen developer
The introduction of low-code/no-code tools like Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI marked the beginning of a new era in software development.
Not only did seasoned development teams embrace these tools due to speed of delivery, but because they also democratised app development by allowing users without formal coding knowledge to build custom solutions that addressed their specific business needs. This transformation empowered employees from various backgrounds closest to the problems – who understood their processes inside-out – to solve them directly, creating more efficient ways of working that bypassed traditional perceived bottlenecks. The icing on the cake here was also the short-term perceived cost reduction.
The ability to create applications quickly, without extensive development knowledge did somewhat help produce a surge of innovation. The citizen developer wave brought agility, cost efficiency, and rapid problem-solving capabilities to businesses across industries. From finance to healthcare, organisations leveraged the Power Platform to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and generate valuable insights through data visualisation.
The Peak: Citizen development in action
At its height, citizen development was embraced by companies worldwide, with success stories surfacing across multiple industries. For example, healthcare providers used Power BI dashboards to track patient outcomes, improving decision-making and patient care. The Power Platform also allowed companies to rapidly prototype and deploy custom applications, ensuring they could respond to market demands with unprecedented speed.
The vibrant citizen developer community flourished during this time, with user groups, forums, and resources expanding, offering a support network for those diving into the world of low-code/no-code platforms. This unknowingly created a governance and security perfect storm.
The Fall: Challenges in scaling and governance
Despite its early success, the citizen developer movement soon faced significant challenges. As organisations scaled their use of low-code applications, the limits of these platforms started to emerge. Governance and security concerns emerged as businesses struggled to manage apps created outside the control of their IT departments. The need to ensure compliance and prevent data breaches became increasingly difficult with the growing number of decentralised applications.
The complexity of larger projects also highlighted the limitations of low-code platforms. While citizen developers thrived in creating small, simple (and often stand-alone) apps, they required professional developers to help them scale, integrate and refine the solutions and to create more complex and mission-critical projects. This shift began to expose the limitations of citizen development in handling enterprise-level demands.
The Future: A collaborative approach
While the citizen developer trend has seen a decline, its principles continue to evolve, and its role in businesses still holds value. However, many companies, like Microsoft, have pivoted and are now moving away from the concept of purely citizen-led development. They are recognising the challenges of scalability, governance, and complexity that businesses face when relying solely on in-house teams without professional development expertise.
Many organisations are now seeing more success by taking a hybrid, more collaborative approach, where the power of the Microsoft Power Platform is combined with the knowledge and experience of expert developers and technologies like Logic Apps or similar. These can help deliver enterprise ready automation, with best-in-class security and governance, and remove the dependency on service accounts or individual users. This is essentially adding a wrapper of robustness for the enterprise.
Although the Power Platform remains a powerful tool for building custom applications, the complexity of today’s digital landscape means that businesses can no longer permit non-professional developers to manage the whole process, unless they are willing to accept significant technical and non-technical risks.
Like having the reassurance of the foundations of a house properly installed by skilled and certified professionals before embarking on a renovation, businesses need experienced developers to handle the foundational setup of applications and ensure the frameworks are in place for citizen developers to succeed. A collaborative approach with Technology departments and teams ensure not only is governance and security in place, but also that they aren’t contributing to a cottage industry of process duplication, multiple sources of truth and shadow tech. The true power could lie in the ability to amend and support in-house maintenance, a powerful combination when teamed with subject matter expertise.
By working with a partner like Pi Digital, your business can ensure your application development implementations are built on solid foundations, from secure data management and seamless workflows to the integration of bespoke apps. This foundation ensures long-term scalability and agility.
Having a team of specialists at your disposal lets your business discover the full benefits of the Power Platform much faster. While citizen developers can still make small customisations or adjustments, having professional support ensures that complex apps are created correctly from the outset, avoiding costly mistakes down the line.
We’re here to support your business and provide tailored guidance to help you rapidly deploy bespoke solutions, streamline processes, and scale effectively — all while remaining compliant and secure. By adopting this collaborative model, your business can strike the right balance between agility and technical excellence, ensuring your digital transformation is both sustainable and future-proof.
If you’re ready to move your business into the future with a collaborative approach to the Microsoft Power Platform and digital transformation, we’re here to help. Get in touch with Pi Digital today to discover how our tailored solutions can help you unlock the benefits of application development and the Power Platform and Logic Apps.
