Citizen development vs traditional app development

Citizen Development:

Traditional App Development: 

Who develops?

Business users with little to no coding experience.  

Professional software developers/engineers.  

Tools Used:

Low-code/no-code platforms with visual interfaces.  

Programming languages (Python, Java, C#, etc.), IDEs, frameworks.  

Speed:

Very fast development cycles (days to weeks).  

Longer development cycles (months to years).  

Complexity:

Best for departmental or simple enterprise-level applications and workflows.  

Suitable for highly complex, mission-critical, and highly customized enterprise applications.  

Cost:

Lower development and maintenance costs

Higher development and maintenance costs.  

Control:

Less granular control over underlying code and infrastructure.  

Complete control over every aspect of the application.  

Collaboration:

Strong collaboration between IT and business.  

Often more siloed, with business providing requirements to IT.