Low-Code Development: Opportunities and Limitations

„Low-Code & Co.: More Harm Than Good?“

This headline caused quite a stir in a recently published article on the IT news platform Heise (see Golo Roden, December 4, 2024). But where does low-code technology actually stand today, and where do its opportunities and limitations lie? In the following article, we offer a well-founded and balanced perspective on low-code technology and answer open questions.

The Reality Behind the Hype

The author of the Heise article puts it aptly: „Business departments cannot suddenly solve everything themselves as if by magic.“ We fully agree with this observation. A calculator doesn’t turn anyone into a mathematician – and in the same way, a low-code platform doesn’t turn a subject-matter expert into a fully-fledged software developer.

Experience Makes the Difference

Not all low-code platforms are the same. While many providers have only jumped on the low-code trend in recent years, the Pega platform was designed as a low-code system from the very beginning – 40 years ago – and Pegasystems continues to develop its platform further. This long experience is reflected particularly in its technical maturity:

– Full support for modern software development (object orientation, inheritance, polymorphism)

– Integrated DevOps tools for CI/CD

– Professional version control, change tracking, recovery of deleted elements

– Automated deployments and integrated unit tests

– Feature toggles and other capabilities required in modern software development

The Bridge Between IT and Business Departments

The article also criticizes the supposed divide between IT and business departments. Our experience shows the opposite: low-code creates a common language. When business users and developers work together on a visual process flow or make changes directly in the UI, genuine understanding and productive collaboration emerge. Low-code can indeed build bridges between IT and business departments.

Citizen Development – Used the Right Way

The Pega platform offers two levels:

A professional development environment for IT experts
An intuitive interface for citizen developers

This combination allows IT experts to develop the architecture and complex functionality, while business users can later make adjustments independently.

The Topic of Vendor Lock-in?

The article warns of vendor dependency created by low-code solutions. But open-source solutions also create dependencies – on communities whose long-term commitment is uncertain. An established software vendor offers stability here and curates various technologies into a valuable, cohesive overall solution. It offers:

Solutions developed by many professional software engineers; this brings considerably more IT know-how to bear than in-house, on-site programming.
Curated and tested (open-source) libraries; the vendor selects the technically best solutions and ensures that its software develops stably together with all libraries over a very long period.
Professional support; the vendor closes known vulnerabilities and releases updates. This is more than local teams could achieve if they had to monitor hundreds of libraries alongside their development tasks.

In the open-source space, there are many genuinely good technical solutions, but no relevant or even dominant solutions with business-specific focus, such as CRM or HR systems. For business-specific solutions, it is usually a software vendor that steps in.

Our Conclusion

Low-code is certainly not a cure-all that makes IT departments superfluous. It is a tool that – when used correctly – improves collaboration between IT and business departments and accelerates software development. The key lies in realistic expectations and the right use of each party’s respective strengths.

At Greenfield, we have always relied on the Pega platform to offer our customers tailor-made solutions. With our many years of experience and expertise, we help companies optimize their processes and achieve their goals.

Do you have further questions on this or other low-code-related topics? Then feel free to send us a message and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss any news about Greenfield or the most important developments in the low-code world.