Agile Workflows: How Developing Applications with Low Code Bridges the Gap Between Business & IT

At many organizations, business teams typically identify a problem and rely on IT teams to build a solution. While this traditional separation of roles can be effective in certain cases, it often leads to delays, inefficiencies, and a lack of alignment between the end product and original business needs.

This happens because there is often a disconnect between how business and IT teams communicate their goals and capabilities, which often leads to friction. This gap is only getting worse as organizations strive to digitize their operations and keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies.

However, agile workflows that leverage low code development tools offer a solution. In this guide, we’ll explain how.

Short on Time? Here's a Brief Overview

• Agile workflows are essential to innovation because they enable faster software deployment and greater collaboration between business and IT users.
• Low code allows business and IT users to work in the same digital space, build feedback loops, and share ownership of digital transformation initiatives.
• Together, agile workflows and low code development ensure better alignment between business and IT teams, speed up software delivery, and reduce IT backlogs.
• When implementing agile workflows and low code, it’s important to consider governance, integrations, and change management.

The Case for Agile Workflows

Agile workflows are a series of project management and software development approaches that emphasize flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement. They can result in stronger fusion between business and IT users, which in turn speeds up digital transformation and yields higher-quality software products that better meet business needs.

An agile methodology is especially essential in today’s fast-paced business environment, where traditional, rigid workflows often struggle to keep up with change. The introduction of generative AI—and the potential business uses that come with it—clearly demonstrates the need for development workflows that accommodate rapid change in the face of technological innovation.

However, there’s significant friction between the agile framework and how companies traditionally approach collaboration between business and IT teams. In a recent survey, only 43% of IT professionals in enterprise-scale companies reported that agile principles are being used effectively. Siloed workspaces and vastly different communication methods can significantly hinder collaboration and harm business-IT alignment.

What Is Low Code Development?

Low code development is an approach to software development that uses customizable templates, drag-and-drop design tools, and pre-made content blocks. It minimizes the amount of code needed to create software tools such as apps, workflow automations, or integrations.

Since low code requires less code than traditional development approaches, it enables business users to act as citizen developers alongside IT professionals. For example, business analysts can design and build an analysis pipeline on their own, with little to no coding required. The democratization of development using low code has played a crucial role in helping many companies achieve rapid digital transformation.

How Low Code Bridges the Gap Between Business and IT

Low code is key to more effectively implementing agile principles and enabling business and IT users to work together.

First, low code platforms offer built-in tools to promote collaboration within cross-functional teams. Business employees can prototype in the same workspace as IT employees, which helps to break down silos in how they discuss ideas and suggest changes. The drag-and-drop interfaces and premade content elements also enable business employees to jumpstart the creation process while IT employees write code for more custom features.

Low code development also encourages faster iteration cycles in line with an agile approach. It’s much easier to quickly modify a piece of software when there are no concerns about breaking complex code or disrupting critical IT infrastructure. This faster pace of development helps eliminate project backlogs and supports agile teams overall.

Another way low code helps bridge the divide between business and IT users is by enabling feedback loops. The flexible nature of low code makes it easy to incorporate new ideas and continuously improve software to better meet business needs.

As a result, low code promotes transparency within and cross-functional ownership of digital transformation projects. Business and IT users are using the same tools and speaking the same language, which results in much stronger alignment between them.

Real-world use cases for low code

Low code platforms are very flexible and can be used for a wide range of digital transformation efforts. Example use cases include:

• Building internal tools for approvals, employee onboarding, asset tracking, and data analysis.
• Creating customer-facing apps for mobile shopping, account access, product tracking, and more.
• Modernizing outdated IT systems with new user interfaces or custom integrations for new business software.

Key Benefits for Business and IT

Implementing agile workflows with low code has several benefits for both your business and IT teams.

For business users, one of the most significant benefits is being able to play a bigger role in digital initiatives. With more visibility into and control over the development process, business users can ensure software products are well-aligned with their needs. This eliminates the problem that many companies currently face: wasting time and money on building custom software that employees don’t actually want to use.

Another key benefit is that you can deliver digital solutions faster. Since business users are empowered to design large portions of new software solutions on their own, they aren’t as dependent on overburdened IT teams. That reduces bottlenecks and speeds up time to deployment.

Apart from these, agile workflows and low code seem to shift some development responsibility onto business users, which brings a great deal of benefits for your IT team. IT employees can focus on more complex project components, such as architecture and security and significantly reduce their overall workload, helping prevent backlogs that can hinder your company’s digital transformation effort.

Challenges and Best Practices

While low code enables agile workflows and offers numerous benefits for business and IT teams, there are some challenges to be aware of when implementing this approach.

First, it’s important to think about software governance—how to control what types of developments business users can take on versus what types of development IT employees should be responsible for.

Good governance is essential to software quality and ensuring your business doesn’t end up with dozens of overlapping apps. As a rule of thumb, IT employees should remain in control of low code platforms and be required to oversee any new development, even if no code is required.

Another challenge is ensuring that low code software integrates smoothly with existing systems. Seamless integration is vital to prevent data silos and disconnected workflows. All new proposed development should involve a plan for how it will be integrated into your business’s core systems.

Lastly, it’s essential to manage the pace of change. Both business and IT employees need to buy into low code development and new forms of collaboration. It’s a good idea to start with a small pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of low code and agile approaches before adopting them more broadly.

How CLEVR Enables Agile, Low Code Transformation

CLEVR serves as an expert partner to help businesses implement agile workflows and low code development. The company has deep experience working with enterprise-scale companies across numerous industries to help them achieve digital transformation.

CLEVR’s approach supports both business users and IT teams by offering scalable platforms, proven collaboration methods, and assistance in identifying digitization opportunities.

It also implements enterprise-grade governance and change management strategies, ensuring that your business can quickly overcome challenges and maximize the benefits of agile and low code.

Check out customer success stories to learn more about how CLEVR can help you accelerate innovation with agile workflows and low code development.

The Future is Collaborative

Greater collaboration between business and IT teams is key to innovation. Agile workflows and low code development unlock shared product ownership, faster iteration, and greater alignment.

Check out CLEVR’s comprehensive guide to low code to learn more.

Research Methodology

This guide is based on input from business and IT leaders who use agile workflows and low code to facilitate cross-functional collaboration. It also draws on surveys of IT professionals, digital transformation success stories, and insights from companies that have successfully  implemented low code tools.

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