Like poorly written code or half-baked integrations, technical debt can wreak havoc on enterprise companies. It holds them back from digital transformation efforts that can streamline business, increase productivity, and unlock innovations. Technical debt also slows down future development and increases costs by as much as 20%.
The good news is that there’s a quick way out of technical debt. Low code platforms enable you to build modern, scalable digital solutions rapidly so your team can focus on innovation and future-proofing your IT infrastructure.
In this guide, we explain how low code platforms help enterprises cut down technical debt.
Technical debt refers to work that’s been left for future software developers to address. It’s an accumulation of shortcuts over time in an attempt to roll out software products like apps and integrations quickly.
Technical debt makes current and future development projects more costly and time-consuming. It also hinders innovation since companies can’t easily experiment with new digitization efforts.
Low code platforms enable your team to build highly flexible and scalable software with little to no new code, replacing or bypassing existing code that creates technical debt.
When implementing low code, it’s important to create a governance framework to ensure future projects are flexible and well-documented.
Technical debt, also called tech debt, refers to shortcuts that IT teams and developers take to reduce the time to market for software and technical infrastructure. These can include writing messy code, building narrow integrations that aren’t easily scalable, or cobbling together multiple existing databases instead of creating something new and less complex.
At the time, these shortcuts can seem like a good thing—they enable your company to roll out new capabilities, like workflows or integrations, more quickly. However, development shortcuts can create massive headaches down the road.
For example, say your company wants to add more capabilities to a piece of software, but the original code was written sloppily for faster deployment. Building on that poorly organized code will take much more time and money than building on code that was correctly written. It may not be possible to rewrite the original code if critical applications are running on it, and it can’t be taken offline. So, your team has to spend time figuring out what each piece of the existing code does and how to make it compatible with new development.
Tech debt results from the accumulation of many development choices like this, which prioritize speed or convenience now over flexibility and scalability later. That debt has to be paid back by future developers, who have to rewrite or work around the old code. This means new development takes longer, costs more, and can disrupt critical business processes.
Low code development offers a way to get your company out of technical debt quickly.
Low code platforms use a combination of pre-made templates, drag-and-drop content elements, visual interfaces, and artificial intelligence to enable software development with little to no coding. They offer a straightforward user experience and can be used to create software integrations, automated workflows, web apps, and more. In short, low code platforms are suitable for a wide range of digitization efforts.
Low code reduces tech debt by enabling developers to bypass some problems your company faces with existing code and outdated legacy systems. For example, low code can allow your team to build new integrations that work alongside existing code without requiring disruptive changes to code that’s already in use. Alternatively, the ease and speed of development using low code makes rebuilding integrations or apps from scratch a much more cost-effective option.
Even better, since there’s little to no coding involved, applications built using low code approaches don’t create additional technical debt. Low code is flexible and scalable, ensuring your company’s IT infrastructure is future-ready.
Another benefit to low code is that it’s accessible to semi-technical business users, not just professional software developers. This enables project managers to play a larger role in new development, leading to software products that fully address your team’s needs.
When using low code to fix technical debt, it’s important to think carefully about your implementation process.
Giving anyone in your business access to low code tools, for example, can result in a flood of single-purpose applications that aren’t integrated with your broader IT systems. At the same time, using low code to build new applications without regard for the code your company already has can result in a “shadow” IT system operating parallel to existing software.
The key to avoiding these risks is to create a strong governance framework around low code development. Managers and semi-technical employees should be encouraged to work as citizen developers alongside professional developers—rather than on their own—to build new integrations and apps. This lets experienced developers play a guiding role in each project to ensure that it’s flexible and scalable to meet future needs.
You can also implement documentation requirements around any new low code development. This allows future developers to understand what was done in the past when building on existing apps or integrations, which speeds up future development and prevents duplicated efforts.
CLEVR’s experts use low code platforms like Mendix to help enterprises reduce technical debt. They work alongside your development team to build innovative and purpose-driven low code applications.
CLEVR can also assist development teams in identifying problematic code, setting project goals, and establishing governance frameworks to prevent technical debt from accumulating in the future. The company provides support through the entire process to unlock the full potential of low code for your business.
Technical debt makes every development effort more time-consuming and expensive, holding your business back from innovation. The best way to cut down technical debt is with low code development, which requires little to no new coding and can help your team replace or bypass poorly written code. Low code software is highly flexible and scalable, ensuring you can build on top of it as new needs arise.
Want to learn more about how low code can help your business reduce technical debt? Check out CLEVR’s comprehensive guide to low code today.
This guide draws on conversations with software development managers and IT leaders who have experience navigating technical debt in enterprise companies. It also builds on CLEVR’s experience working with enterprise businesses to develop low code solutions to resolve existing technical debt.