Welcome to “Launch and scale citizen development on the Now Platform”, part of our Leading
Practices series.
In this video you’ll learn about citizen developers and how launching and scaling a
citizen development program can support your digital transformation efforts.
We’ll provide considerations for setting up citizen development at your organization,
and we’ll leave you with some resources and next steps to get started.
Let’s start by defining a citizen developer.
Citizen developers are users from outside your usual IT development team, for example,
within a line of business.
They typically have little to no coding experience and they can create applications using no
or low code that are supported by your IT processes.
We recommend four steps to pilot and scale citizen development.
Start by aligning citizen development to your organization’s application development goals.
Next, approach citizen development as a program that you’ll pilot and scale over time.
Then, establish development processes and technical guardrails to support citizen developers
and reduce risk.
Finally, plan how you will extend the program.
Let’s dig into each of these, starting with Step 1.
The first step is aligning citizen development to your organization’s goals.
Start by reaching out to your ServiceNow executive sponsor and Center of Excellence to build
support for piloting and scaling a citizen development program.
Frame this conversation around how citizen development can help you to achieve your goals,
which could include: Improving development speed and efficiency
by expanding your development pool, Shifting IT resources because citizen developers
can take on some less complex IT projects, Empowering innovation within teams who are
closest to the business problems, Increasing intellectual property because applications
developed by citizen developers are proprietary to your organization, and
Reducing the risk of shadow IT, which occurs when employees go outside of the IT-sanctioned
applications to do their work.
The next step is to approach citizen development as a program:
First, build support among business partners.
Provide them with a clear vision of how citizen development can deliver value and what will
be required from them, including any funding for training and facilitating citizen developers’
time spent in the program.
Next, establish a scalable technical management framework to support citizen development.
Some applications will need light technical management.
Other applications will require your ServiceNow platform team to be involved throughout development.
You’ll also need to define technical guardrails so your citizen developers can create and
experiment safely, such as working out of a unique development instance.
Then, establish a program framework for citizen development.
Appoint a program manager and establish goals.
Finally, enable your citizen development with engagement and support.
Let’s talk more about what this looks like…
Start with a small pilot of individuals who understand data and business processes.
Make sure to onboard them with initial training.
As part of that onboarding, outline your expectations for their involvement in the program.
And make sure to provide learning programs, coaching, and a community of practice to support
their ongoing growth as developers.
Step 3 is about making sure your existing development processes support your citizen
development program.
Intake should capture the information you’ll need to assign the appropriate level of technical
management.
In other words, is this an app your citizen developer can take on independently or will
you need an experienced developer involved?
Your demand review will need to expand to include a review of skills or certifications
required for a citizen developer to execute on building.
Your citizen developers should participate in testing but any oversight or additional
testing at the platform level should be centralized by the ServiceNow platform team.
And finally, make sure to follow your standard deployment process.
The last step is expanding your citizen developer program:
Solicit feedback from your citizen developers, ServiceNow platform team, and business units
to find opportunities to improve training and expand your citizen developer pool.
You should be measuring progress against the goals you identified in Step 1.
Use this data and the feedback collected from citizen developers to plan the next phase
of your program.
This could mean expanding the number of citizen developers or the scope of their development
capabilities.
There are three key insights we want you to remember from this video:
First, approach citizen development as a program supported by your lines of business and ServiceNow
platform team.
Second, provide your citizen developers with ongoing skills development.
Finally, implement scalable technical management with appropriate guardrails to ensure successful
application building.
So, what should you do next?
First, take time to review the leading practice resources we have on the Customer Success
Center.
These materials will give you more details and insights from experts on how to pilot
and expand your citizen developer program.
Second, take what you’ve learned and have a discussion with your executive sponsor about
how citizen development can help you improve the velocity and scale of value you deliver
with ServiceNow.
Lastly, plan to launch your citizen development program to align with leading practice.
Remember that ServiceNow can deliver enterprise workflow transformation – and citizen developers
can play an important role in your innovation!
For more information or advice, contact your ServiceNow team.
Thank you for watching.