The Intelligent Edge: A new frontier in how we make software

The Intelligent Edge: A new frontier in how we make software

Software Development

Curated by: Sergio A. Martínez

The intelligent edge is one of the most talked about topics in technology development today, and for good reason – it represents a shift away from the centralized model of computing that has dominated for so long. But along with this new way of doing things comes new challenges, which need to be addressed if the intelligent edge is to fulfill its potential.

Intelligent-Machine-Economy

Creating solutions at the intelligent edge

But what is the intelligent edge? Is it just a mere buzzword, the same way “the information superhighway” was in the 90s, or it is truly a change in the way we approach technology development? Simply put, the intelligent edge focuses on making applications and services more responsive to local conditions and events by moving computation and data storage closer to the devices that generate and use them. For example, imagine an AI assistant like Cortana contained entirely within your phone, analyzing everything (weather conditions, hotel prices, people density on a tourist spot, available parking space, etc.) as you travel, without the need for a constant connection to the cloud or a data center somewhere. That way, we could have applications that are more responsive, reliable, and secure.

“The intelligent edge is an on-premises system that collects, processes, and acts upon data. Typically used within the Internet of Things arrays, the intelligent edge uses edge computing to reduce response times, bandwidth needs, and security risks. Since all the actions are taken on-premises, the data does not need to be sent to the cloud or a data center to be processed”, is the definition given by Insight.com.

And because they’re designed to work even when there’s no connection to a central server, they’re perfect for mobile and distributed environments, a technological paradigm that will become more important moving forward, from retail to healthcare. In retail, you can already see retailers are using the intelligent edge to provide real-time customer service and personalized product recommendations, and in healthcare, it’s being used to monitor patients’ vital signs and provide early detection of potential health problems, and the list goes on. 

In consequence, the intelligent edge is a revolutionary way of utilizing recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, not only an advantage for those who are already ahead but also creating new opportunities by challenging organizations to embrace these technologies wholeheartedly.

A tangible cyberspace?

A tangible cyberspace?

In the future we once envisioned back in the 90s, when the Internet was beginning to gain an important place in our lives, we “entered the Matrix”, so to speak, where a digital reality existed separately from our everyday lives. But what actually happened is that “the Matrix” slowly got incorporated into our physical space; augmented reality, the Internet of Things, streaming services, autonomous machines, IA assistants, and more aren’t meant to transport us to a different (digital) existence, but to bring its possibilities to our daily lives, into our real world. 

 And the intelligent edge is where the physical and digital worlds come together, presenting a whole host of challenges for software developers. As a complex ecosystem of devices, sensors, data, and connectivity, it requires a new approach to development because traditional approaches simply don’t work in this environment. The challenges the intelligent edge presents are numerous, but they can be boiled down to three main areas: data management, security, and connectivity. 

  • Data management. Data management can be challenging because the data at our intelligent edge is often unorganized and distributed.
  • Security. The intelligent edge is a hotbed for hackers and cybercriminals, trying to take advantage of the security measures taken there.
  • Connectivity. Connectivity is a challenge because the intelligent edge is constantly changing and evolving.

These challenges are daunting, but they can be overcome with the right approach to development. After all, the intelligent edge it’s where the rubber meets the road, where developers are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible; it’s all about creating applications that are responsive to users’ needs and context, and that can make decisions on their behalf. It’s about creating software that is truly smart and can help users get the most out of their devices. It’s about creating applications that are always available, even when there’s no Internet connection to rely on.

But even with these challenges, the intelligent edge is the future of software development, and any organization that wants to stay ahead of the curve needs to start thinking about how to design applications to take full advantage of this new paradigm.

Looking for DevOps

Ghost-Colleagues

The set of development practices of DevOps, which bridge the gap between software developers and IT operations while shortening the production cycle, might hold an answer to the challenges of the intelligent edge. After all, the goal is to promote communication and collaboration between these two groups to improve the overall efficiency of the software development process required by this paradigm, and DevOps it’s characterized by a focus on automation, often using tools such as Puppet and Chef which allow developers to spend more time on writing code, and less time on manually deploying and configuring software. 

In addition, DevOps practices often emphasize the importance of monitoring and logging, as this can help to identify problems early on and prevent them from becoming major issues. By bringing developers and IT operations closer together, DevOps has the potential to vastly improve the quality and efficiency of software development, as analyzed in this article by Forbes Magazine: 

“DevOps is the key component to assemble complex embedded software at the intelligent edge. Traditionally, embedded software developers wrote code. When they were finished, and the application had been through quality assurance, the embedded “Ops” (production) installed the systems. This sequential “waterfall” model is too slow for the intelligent edge, which is operating in real-time.”

Thus, when developing software for the intelligent edge, DevOps is king. By automating the software development process, DevOps helps developers create high-quality code faster and with fewer errors, automating the deployment of code to testing and production environments, making it easier to keep track of changes, and ensuring that code is always up to date. As a result, DevOps can help proponents of the intelligent edge move faster and achieve their goals with fewer headaches.

“Under the DevOps banner, different embedded developer personas (e.g., platform developers, application developers, operators, data scientists, or DevOps engineers) work in scrums. They push out new software releases as part of agile teams and do it so rapidly that it’s better to integrate the Ops and QA (quality assurance, testing) teams into the development process”, continues the aforementioned Forbes article.

So, as the demand for software that can handle the challenges of the intelligent edge grows, so too will the need for DevOps, which consequently will drive up the demand for faster and more reliable software. That way, DevOps will continue to play an important role in the development of software for the intelligent edge.

Living on the edge with Nearshore

Creating solutions at the intelligent edge

Businesses are becoming more reliant on data, and the need for intelligent edge solutions is only going to grow. However, among the challenges associated with developing these solutions, one of the biggest is finding the right talent. There is a global shortage of skilled workers in the field of software development, and this problem is only compounded by the fact that many businesses are located in developed countries where technological labor demand is high. Nearshore development can help to overcome this by providing access to talent without sacrificing communication or compromising outcomes. 

The resulting collaboration between businesses and nearshore development companies can help to create an ecosystem of innovation that leads to better results, and by overcoming the challenges associated with developing intelligent edge solutions, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and keep their competitive advantage.

“In today’s fast-paced world, software development needs to be agile and adaptive to keep up, and by reducing silos and communication barriers between these two teams, DevOps enables quicker and more reliable software delivery”, says Rodimiro Aburto, Service Delivery Manager and Co-Founder at Scio. “In addition, DevOps also brings other benefits to Nearshore software development, such as increased collaboration, better quality code, and improved customer satisfaction, helping businesses respond faster to market changes and stay ahead of the competition, especially when it comes to working at the intelligent edge.”

As a result, DevOps is a key ingredient for any successful Nearshore software development team, especially in today’s business world, where the intelligent edge will seemingly become a norm. And for businesses looking to prepare for this paradigm, the answer is spread out across multiple locations in Nearshore collaboration hubs, where teams of experts can work together to find the right solution, and businesses can tap into a wide pool of talent, which can help to speed up decision making and prepare for a new approach in software development.

So, if you’re looking to get ahead in the world of intelligent edge development, make sure you’re using DevOps. It’ll make your life a whole lot easier. As the world becomes more connected, nearshore collaboration hubs are becoming an essential part of doing business.

The Key Takeaways

  • As tech applications move towards a purely mobile environment, a new paradigm in software design approaches: the Intelligent Edge.
  • This intelligent edge will require new solutions to development challenges, mainly the fact that these applications will always be “on”.
  • Frameworks like DevOps might offer a solution to “change the tire while the car is running”, but this presents further challenges.
  • Access to talented developers and engineers will grow, and looking towards Nearshore development is positioned as one of the best solutions around.

Scio is an established Nearshore software development company based in Mexico that specializes in providing high-quality, cost-effective technologies for pioneering tech companies. We have been building and mentoring teams of engineers since 2003 and our experience gives us access not only to the knowledge but also the expertise needed when tackling any project. Get started today by contacting us about your project needs – We have teams available to help you achieve your business goals. Get in contact today!

Good Test Case design in QA: Quality at every step of the process

Good Test Case design in QA: Quality at every step of the process

Outsourced Engineering Team, Product Development, Scio, Software Development, Technologies

Curated by: Sergio A. Martínez

Creating software can be compared to solving a big, complex puzzle. A developer needs to take a bunch of pieces (code, algorithms, requirements, deadlines, etc.) and put them together in the right way to create a functioning product that satisfies everyone involved, from clients to final users. And just like with a puzzle, there is no single «right» way to develop software; it depends on the individual developer’s preferences and style, where some may start by laying out all of the pieces and looking for patterns, while others may start assembling pieces and then adjust as they go along. 

Test-Cases-1

And the biggest challenge is that if even one piece is out of place, it can throw the entire system off balance. This is why, besides having a good team of developers able to see the big picture and break it down into manageable tasks, a good QA Tester is so critical to obtaining the best possible outcome during development. Only then can you hope to create a successful piece of programming.

That’s why having a good approach to QA is so important; having experienced testers whose toolset matches the requirements of the product, capable of coming up with a plan for how they will test the code as they write it, as well as having a deep understanding of what “quality” means for the project, is a must in any team. 

So, in that sense, we want to take a look into one of the most important processes of QA: test cases. Because beyond running automated tests and manual testing, QA involves a systematic approach where developers can avoid costly mistakes and create products that meet customer expectations. And in practice, how can you design the perfect test case? What considerations should you have, and what’s the best approach to document and keep track of the sometimes messy process of QA?

Test cases are simple: Just think of everything

When it comes to software development, well-designed test cases are essential. By carefully planning out each test case, developers can ensure that their code will be thoroughly tested for errors, and taking the time to design comprehensive test cases can save a lot of time and effort in the long run. But how should you approach this task in practice? Is there a trick to designing a good Test Case?

“It depends on the project”, says Angie Lobato, a Quality Assurance Analyst at Scio with a wide range of expertise in everything QA. “The ISTQB already mentions that 100% thorough testing is not something that is possible, so it comes down to the priorities of the team, the requirements, the severity of the bugs, and the timelines set to deliver the product, as well as how much time the person in charge of QA has.”

This is why knowing how to design a test case is so important; considering all the challenges that software development already faces, being able to write an efficient, timely, and thorough test case is a valuable skill, keeping in mind things like… 

  • Thinking about the expected behavior of the system under test. What should it do in various scenarios?
  • Choosing input values that will exercise all relevant parts of the system.
  • Designing tests that will detect errors, but also verify that the system behaves as expected.
  • Keeping track of all tests performed, including pass/fail status and any observations made.

However, saying this is easier said than done; it can be difficult to create comprehensive test cases that cover all possible scenarios, and as software becomes more complex, replicating customer environments to test for all potential issues requires some intuition and minute attention to detail. That’s why the design of your test cases has to start with a script as the basis of the test, documented and shared to see exactly what you are trying to accomplish. For this process, Angie tells us that…

“I first need to validate that the Test Case (TC) related to the specific item I’m checking doesn’t exist yet, and do whatever is necessary, like adding, taking out or updating steps to not end up with a suite of repeated test cases”, she explains. “To design the script, it’s always good to create them in their respective suite, with a link to the requirement so everybody in the team can easily find them (I’ve personally used TFS, Azure DevOps, and Jira) depending on the tools utilized during the project. For the script itself, I define the objective of the Test Case, as well as the preconditions and postconditions it needs. Once that has been taken care of, I start to retrace the steps necessary to reach the item I need to test. I add each needed step to achieve the objectives of the test case with their expected result, and finally, I validate the final results where the change needed to be reflected.”

As you can see, there’s a lot of documentation involved in designing a test case, and having the proper formats to keep everything in order (like this one) helps to make sure that each test is accomplishing what it needs to. And according to Angie, a good test case needs a couple of characteristics to make it good:

  • A good test case has a clear objective stated and is updated to the latest version of the project. 
  • Has all the necessary testing data to execute it without creating repeated information. 
  • Has defined all the preconditions and postconditions of the product. 
  • And most importantly, don’t try to test more than one thing in a single case.
  • However, if you need to, changing the parameters of the test is necessary to make that clear. 
  • An ideal test case shouldn’t have more than 10 steps in total.

Ensuring quality at a distance

Test-Cases-3

As anyone who has ever been involved in software development knows, QA is a critical part of the process, and a good test case can help to ensure that the final product meets the requirements of the customer and is free of issues, especially in the current development landscape where remote collaboration is becoming a given. 

For a Nearshore development team like the ones at Scio, a well-crafted, carefully designed test case is invaluable, helping to ensure that the team and the client is on the same page concerning the expected results of the testing process, and providing a clear and concise way to communicate those expectations to everyone involved. 

In other words, a good test case can help to streamline the testing process and make it more efficient, so taking the time to create a good test case is well worth the effort for any remote software development team. 

“Any company that outsources software development knows that collaboration is key to success. A good QA team is essential to ensuring that the final product meets the standards”, says Adolfo Cruz, PMO Director, and Partner at Scio. “In a Nearshore setting, they are especially beneficial because they ensure that any problems are found and fixed quickly before they have a chance to cause major problems. As a result, well-designed test cases play a vital role in ensuring the success of a remote relationship.”

The Key Takeaways

  • Quality is necessary at every step of the process of developing software, not only a concern in the final product.
  • A good example is test cases, how important they are to the process of QA, and what good practices get involved in designing one.
  • A well-designed test case is straight to the point, meticulous, and tries to think of all the context around the product in order to ensure the best quality possible.
  • Also, the process of designing a good test case is doubly important when working on a project remotely, helping keep everyone on the same page and track all the changes and corrections necessary to bring the best possible outcome. 

Scio is a Nearshore software development company based in Mexico where we believe that everyone deserves everyone should have the opportunity to work in an environment where they feel like a part of something. A place to excel and unlock their full potential which is the best approach to creating a better world. We have been collaborating with US-based clients since 2003, solving challenging programming puzzles, and in the process showcasing the skills of Latin American Engineers. Want to be part of Scio? Get in contact today!

The quality in Quality Assurance: What does a good approach look like?

The quality in Quality Assurance: What does a good approach look like?

Product Development, Software Development

Curated by: Sergio A. Martínez

The process of QA testing came into prominence, at least within more mainstream audiences, when stories about it came out regarding the popular (and some might say) infamous videogame Cyberpunk 2077, which has become known as one of the most high-profile disasters of shipped software products.

Is your talent distributed or remote?: A new way to look at inclusion in the workplace.

And as bugs were some of the most notorious problems of this game, it also presents the opportunity to talk about a very important part of software development, which can make or break a product: Quality Assurance. What does a good implementation of QA look like? What does it aim to find, and what are the best ways to go about it? And more importantly, what makes a good QA process?

1. Quantity of over quality (assurance)

The quality in Quality Assurance What does a good approach look like

An anonymous source within Quantic Labs, one of the firms in charge of QA in Cyberpunk 2077, told journalists about a “bug quota” imposed by management on their testers. With the requirement of reporting at least 10 bugs per day, the logic seemed to make sense: encourage your testers to be as thorough as possible, and thus ensure the final product will have the highest quality. However, if you are familiar with how the QA process works, you are already wincing because you know where this is going.

Quality Assurance is an important part of software development that, by ensuring that code is well-tested and meets standards, helps to improve the efficiency of a development team, and several good practices can help to ensure a successful quality process. Quotas can have the precise opposite effect, slowing down development by flooding developers with meaningless reports. Which, should be said, is no fault of the tester; after all, what is the result if they fail to meet them?

“I’ve worked in QA since 2011, been a Team Lead for the last three years, and bug quotas are a bad system which achieves absolutely nothing good”, explains one of the comments in the aforementioned article. “First, your testers enter a load of unproductive bugs, because they will divide one issue up into as many possible JIRA entries as they possibly can. And on top of that, they don’t have time to properly investigate the more complicated issues that they find — you get a lot more crash bugs with horribly elaborate reproduction steps because testers can’t afford to spend two hours nailing down exactly what triggers them.”

So with measures like these, the management of a project can unintendedly encourage bad QA, as it makes it more about the number of bugs found and less about their importance. So instead of quotas, a better method could be to ensure that everyone knows the priorities of the project, and have a clear definition of what constitutes a bug or issue (to let developers know when they need to fix something). Understand that QA is an important part of the development cycle from beginning to end, and enough time to do proper research and testing on bugs and issues is crucial in the planning of any successful project. Speaking of which…

2. Not a step, but an ongoing process

The quality in Quality Assurance What does a good approach look like_2

One of the biggest myths about QA testing is that it’s a one-time event that happens at the end of development. This simply isn’t true. Even if many people think it’s just a matter of catching bugs before a product is released, QA testing is an essential part of the software development process, and it should be treated as an ongoing collaboration between developers and testers.

This means regularly testing code and providing feedback to developers throughout the software development lifecycle; after all, effective QA testing is about making sure that a software application meets the requirements of the end-user. This means ensuring that the app is easy to use, bug-free, and performs well under real-world conditions, and QA testers play a vital role in ensuring that these standards are reached by working closely with developers throughout the whole project.

“Companies that realize the importance of Quality Assurance encourage employees to look at every part of the software development process as a “product” that has its consumer”, is a good explanation given by this blog from the QA firm Syndicode. “Defects are possible at each stage, so it’s important to ensure all participants adhere to the quality standards.”

After all, QA testing needs to be a collaboration between developers and testers, but it can also be heavy on time and resources. One way to improve efficiency and reduce costs is to ensure that a team, by working together, can quickly identify and fix errors, saving time and money in the long run. 

3. Good communication between the QA team and developers is everything.

The quality in Quality Assurance What does a good approach look like

In any line of work, good communication is essential to collaboration, and this is especially true in the field of QA Testing, where clear and concise communication can mean the difference between a successful project and a costly mistake. 

This means setting expectations, outlining the scope of the project, and establishing a clear process for reporting bugs and feedback. Without good communication, it can be difficult to get everyone on the same page, leading to frustration and delays. By taking the time to establish good communication early on, you can save yourself a lot of headaches down the road. 

Also, this is where the advantages of a different approach in collaboration can shine, like the option of working with a Nearshore organization to find the QA talent your project needs. There are many benefits to this, like the increased diversity you get when expanding your scope (important to get as many fresh perspectives as you can when solving a particularly thorny bug), as well as efficiency and communication. With Nearshore proximity, it gets easier to build strong working relationships with other team members, whose cultural closeness makes work smoother in general, while also being flexible and scalable, making it a good option for businesses of all sizes. This way, teams can work more closely together to identify and resolve issues more quickly. 

The result is that, with a Nearshore QA department, collaborative testing can also help to improve communication and build trust between team members; when everyone is on the same page, it leads to better quality software and a better user experience.

 

QA: More than meets the eye

The case of Cyberpunk 2077 we mentioned at the beginning is a great example of a QA process done wrong, and thankfully, any future product development can learn from it and understand how to approach an area of IT that sometimes doesn’t seem as valued as it should. The main thing is that proper QA is critical for success, and having a good approach towards it is the first step to guaranteeing a useful product that meets the expectations, and preferences, of a user base.

The Key Takeaways

  • QA is a critical part of software development, and any successful product has a strong quality process in place.
  • However, it’s very easy to choose the wrong approach to QA, compromising the functionality and success of any application, no matter how good it is.
  • Collaboration, communication, and a proper system that encourages looking for big issues during development are crucial, keeping everyone on the same page and with the same goals.
  • And when it comes to remote collaboration, a Nearshore partner is the best choice to bring the best QA talent to your team, as the close cultural fit and ability to communicate are invaluable to ensure a quality application.

Scio is an established Nearshore software development company based in Mexico that specializes in providing high-quality, cost-effective technologies to help you reach new heights. We have been developing since 2003 and our experience gives us access not only to the knowledge but also the expertise needed when tackling any project. Get started today by contacting us about your project needs – we’ll be happy to help you achieve your business goals.

No-code tools and platforms: The future of software development?

No-code tools and platforms: The future of software development?

Scio, Software Development

Curated by: Sergio A. Martínez

The practice of no-code is becoming one of the growing tech trends in software development, and as a Nearshore development software company, here at Scio we take a look at what it could mean for our industry, and where the future of digital applications may be headed. Enjoy!

No-code-tools-and-platforms-The-future-of-software-development-2

From the very beginning, computers had the power to make our life easier as long as we knew how to speak in the same language as them, but as these machines became common in our daily lives, the way we interfaced with them changed, and little by little the prospect of building programs and products through them started to be, more inclusive of more and more people getting involved. .

A good example is the simple act of editing a text document on a computer; nowadays it’s as easy as opening a word processor and start typing, but there was a point in time when you needed to understand special commands, known then as “control codes” (the grandparents of modern mark-up code) to produce a legible, well formatted document.

Things like margins, font sizes, and line spacing had to be manually calibrated before you could write anything printable, so the practice of writing in a computer was out of reach of most people until the arrival of WYSIWYG, an acronym of “What You See Is What You Get”, which is a system that simplified this process, showing you the end result of a document as you worked on it.

In other words, there was a point where we understood the need to adapt the use of a computer as a tool for common people, offering the ability of accomplishing things, like writing a text, making a presentation or even creating a website without having to go through the lengthy process of learning code.

WYSIWYG was a huge step into making computer software friendly, and today we can consider it one of the first examples of “no-code”: the ability to create digital objects in a quick and simplified way, which now seems one of the biggest trends in software development. However, what would a future with a “no-code” ethos be like?

A growing demand

No-code-tools-and-platforms-The-future-of-software-development-3

Today, you can think of “no-code” as a way to program websites, mobile apps, and games without using codes, scripts, or sets of commands. There are many no-code development platforms out there that allow both programmers and non-programmers alike to create software through simple graphical user interfaces instead of traditional line-by-line coding, and they are becoming more common day after day by virtue of their simplicity. 

“No-code is simply an abstraction layer over code. Meaning, it takes the fundamentals of code and translates them into simple drag-and-drop solutions — allowing creators to build modern apps and websites visually. A no-code development platform can deliver all of the functionality of HTML5, CSS, and Javascript, but you don’t have to know any of these programming languages to jump in and start building,” indicates Webflow, a provider of such platforms.

Although low/no-code (LCNC) has been around for a while, it’s only recently that the software development community is taking notice. In 2018, Gartner predicted that by 2024, «low-code development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity«, and software development research firm Forrester has called low-code «the most significant trend affecting software development today.«

The result is that today many platforms provide ways for users to create their own solutions, and developers have found it easier and more convenient than ever before to use them, in order to satisfy a growing demand from customers who want software quickly without having any hassle or stress attached. 

This, in turn, has led companies across all industries to not only develop these types of products but also hire people specializing solely in developing computer programs through no-code platforms — a trend known as “shifting left” by some industry veterans due to its increasing popularity among younger generations.

However, what’s driving this no-code movement? There are a few factors, and the main one is the increasing democratization of software development. In the past, programming used to be a dark art, known only to a select few who were brave enough to learn its secrets and understand how to apply them effectively. But with the rise of no-code platforms, the barriers of entry for software development are now much lower, and virtually anyone can create software, regardless of their coding ability. But what does this landscape look like?

The democratization of software development

If you are part of the software development industry, you have seen it: the demand for software developers of all kinds has skyrocketed during the last decade (especially when you factor in the sudden need for technological solutions after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020),  so to satisfy this demand, many platforms have started to offer low-code/no-code alternatives that let people without prior experience in programming to create their own software; a sort of “Development-as-a-Service” (DaaS) paradigm where software development is increasingly accessible to the masses.

“This, obviously, has resulted in the increasing popularization of digital solutions for businesses and entrepreneurs of every kind, who now are seeing the technological barriers of the past start breaking down, giving the chance to most people to “leap ahead” and participate in a world where software is increasingly critical to success, giving them the ability to develop some basic software to suit their needs”, said Luis Aburto, CEO and Co-Founder of Scio, about this new trend.

However, this democratization, although desirable and necessary in our modern, technologically-focused world, also comes with downsides that most enterprises should be aware of. And first and foremost is: how does innovation work when an organization depends on quick, ready-made solutions for its unique challenges?

“Low-code tooling does not replace the need for traditionally-built enterprise applications. There will always be needs for pro-developer built solutions such as critical APIs, low-latency, high-performance web applications, or even native mobile apps”, says Software Architect and Vice-President of OneStream Software, Ryan Berry. “Low-code tooling builds a bridge to allow the business to enhance portfolios of both commercial off-the-shelf and in-house built applications, allowing citizen developers the ability to rapidly build applications such as input forms, data validation applications and remote monitoring or management tools.«

And although this is an important step toward digitalization, software development is much more than just building a product; compliance, scalability, security, and even the need to touch all the points of an organization to make sure the product is actually achieving a goal is not something that can be built with a few clicks in a platform. Ultimately, even no-code solutions require expertise and management to ensure success in a project.

Security, in particular, is the bigger concern with the rapid adoption of DaaS and NC/LC software, where depending on a single platform, accessing sensitive data can be a trivial task. “One problem with some low-code and no-code platforms is that end-users are sometimes in a position to make decisions about configurations, permissions, and access controls. […] There are inherent risks in how customer data is siloed and partitioned in these platforms”. 

This has given rise to the (very cool sounding, if we are honest) concept of “shadow IT”, or “the use of IT-related hardware or software by a department or individual without the knowledge of the IT or security group within the organization. It can encompass cloud services, software, and hardware”, as defined by Cisco. Because with the increased offer of platforms, services, and apps that could help to simplify a project, comes an increasing comfort in using such tools without proper vetting or research. The result is an IT or security department left in the shadows when trouble comes.

“With the consumerization of IT, hundreds of these applications are in use at the typical enterprise. The lack of visibility into them represents a security gap. Although some applications are harmless, others include functionality such as file sharing and storage, or collaboration, which can present big risks to an organization and its sensitive data. IT and security departments need to see what applications are being used and what risks they pose”, continues the same organization.

No-code: An imperfect solution?

Despite its challenges, the rise of no-code is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that “traditional” programming is going away. Although no-code platforms give people a starting point to build and digitalize their own ideas, it has its limits. As we mentioned, innovation and scalability are difficult to achieve with these tools, and every organization, sooner or later, faces unique challenges that sometimes cannot be solved with “one size fits all” software solutions.

“Since low-code/no-code platforms are optimized for simple use cases, employees or practitioners must work within tight, platform-specific constraints when problems arise. Tools with limitations will produce limited results”, indicates the IT journalism site Ciodive (no relation).

Custom-made, proprietary software built to the specific needs of an organization or market will always be the better option in the long run, especially as organizations mature and specific expectations have to be met, so what “no-code” solutions offer is a way to bridge the gap between programmers and non-programmers to build better products as a whole. 

And even then, today the options to build or expand existing products are more vast and convenient than before. Nearshore development, for example, offers a way to bring expertise to an existing project within the same language and time zones, making the prospect of developing software and testing ideas easier than ever. Although the solutions offered by no-code platforms are a great way to bridge the need between technology and practicality, there’s still some UX, UI, and expert development insight needed to create flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions that meet their specific business needs. So if you’re looking to get ahead of the curve, contact us today, and let’s talk about how we can help you embrace the future of software development.

The Key Takeaways:

  • Software development is going through a democratization process that allows non-programming people to digitize and use technology to their advantage.
  • The biggest expression of this is “no-code”: the ability to create software products without the need of coding.
  • Although this is a solution that works for many, it’s not the end all of software development, as there are many areas (like security, scalability, compliance and so on) that are limited with a no-code solution.
  • Today, however, options like Nearshore software development offer a way to bring the expertise necessary to create and develop software when an organization is mature enough to do so.

Scio is an established Nearshore software development company based in Mexico that specializes in providing high-quality, cost-effective technologies to help you reach new heights. We have been developing since 2003 and our experience gives us access not only to the knowledge but also the expertise needed when tackling any project. Get started today by contacting us about your project needs – we’ll be happy to help you achieve your business goals.