A citizen developer is a non-IT professional—such as someone in sales, marketing, or operations—who builds applications or automations using no-code or low-code platforms. They create tools to solve business problems without needing formal programming skills, allowing faster development and reducing reliance on traditional IT resources.
Pros
- Faster delivery: Business users can build and iterate without waiting for IT resources.
- Closer to real needs: Solutions reflect actual workflows, not assumptions.
- Reduced IT backlog: IT teams can focus on complex or high-risk systems.
- Lower development cost: No need for full development cycles for simple tools.
Cons
- Limited flexibility: No-code tools may not support complex logic or edge cases.
- Governance risks: Without clear rules, apps can become inconsistent or hard to maintain.
- Security and compliance concerns: Citizen-built tools still need oversight.
- Scaling challenges: What works for a team may not work organization-wide.
Citizen developers typically rely on no-code or low-code platforms, such as Ragic. Platforms that emphasize:
- Visual interfaces (drag and drop, what you see is what you get)
- Prebuilt components
- Minimal or optional scripting
- Easy integration with existing systems
- Stronger governance features: Better permission control, audit logs, and IT oversight.
- AI-assisted building: Systems that suggest workflows, fields, or automations automatically.
- Closer IT collaboration: Shared platforms where IT sets rules and business users build safely.
- Expansion beyond simple apps: Citizen developers handling more complex processes with guardrails.
- Standardization over one-off tools: Fewer “random spreadsheets,” more structured internal systems.
The key difference between citizen developers and professional developers lies in who they are and why they build systems.
Citizen developers are business users without formal software development training. Their primary role is not system development. They build tools to solve problems they encounter in their own work, such as tracking requests, automating approvals, or managing internal data. Development is a means to support their business responsibilities, not their main job.
Professional developers are trained software engineers whose primary responsibility is building, maintaining, and scaling systems. They design applications with long-term architecture, security, performance, and compliance in mind. Development is their core role, and they are accountable for system reliability and technical quality.
In short:
Citizen developers build systems to do their job better.
Professional developers build systems as their job.
They are most effective when citizen developers handle business-driven tools and workflows, while professional developers provide platforms, governance, and technical foundations.
