IT backlogs lead enterprises to a place where all the great application ideas that could potentially improve employee efficiency and streamline customer experiences get left at the table. Enterprises are constantly playing catchup instead of innovating and surpassing their competition.
72 percent of IT leaders report that backlogs prevent them from focusing on more important and strategic projects.
In today's highly digitized market, delayed app development is almost as costly as not building. The relentless pace of digital innovation means failing to deliver fully functional apps on schedule can lead to missed opportunities and inefficient services, directly affecting customer experience.
Efficient and faster app development is needed to quickly clear up IT backlogs before impacting your company’s bottom line.
Understanding the IT backlog
IT backlogs comprise long queues full of tasks, projects, and application requirements that have been identified but still need to be addressed. The list can consist of what needs to be done and what needs to be prioritized.
According to a report, CIOs state that managing application backlog is the biggest barrier to job effectiveness, regardless of company size or industry.
The idea of digitizing operations and achieving transformational goals with fancy new software sounds great. Still, the reality is that many organizations are far from where they want to be in terms of app delivery. Most enterprises struggle with a backlog of IT requests that they'll probably never be able to get rid of using the traditional approach.
There is an increased demand for new and updated digital solutions. However, as the company resources are constrained, the current supply with a limited IT workforce cannot meet the demand. Hiring more developers or extending the IT team doesn’t solve the problem. It increases technical debt and only moves the problem around.
Instead, enterprises need an efficient application development strategy to meet the increased application demand with the existing resources.
The need for efficient app development
The backlog will go nowhere as long as the demand for new software outstrips supply in an enterprise. IT departments will be too bogged down to think about new ideas, putting innovation on hold.
Business users must shoulder some of the IT burden to clear the backlog. They are experts in their field, and they understand what data to collect and how it needs to be processed.
When these business users get the tools to become citizen developers, they can easily build business-critical applications independently, taking the pressure off the IT team.
Complete waves of projects can quickly vanish from the IT backlogs as citizen developers take up more responsibilities and handle simple, one-off application requirements. Pro developers can use this freed-up time to work on more complex and innovative projects.
Start clearing backlogs with low-code
The democratization of app development by including citizen developers can change how organizations manage their IT requirements and build applications.
Business users can leverage low-code/no-code tools, which reduce the required technical expertise for building complex applications. With more people involved, development happens faster, quickly clearing IT backlogs.
The low-code/no-code approach to app development cuts development time drastically and reduces dependence on traditional IT teams so they can focus on high-level tasks.
It removes the intricacies of coding, allowing users to build apps based on business logic. Since people using the application are involved in the development process, the apps get built faster and completely align with the business goals and requirements.
A low-code development platform allows teams across the organization to collaborate from anywhere. With low-code opens a new window, it’s not IT vs. Business. It’s IT and Business.
