What is
Appian?
The Appian Low-Code Platform combines the key capabilities needed to get work done faster, Process Mining + Workflow + Automation, in a unified low-code platform. Appian is open, enterprise-grade and trusted by industry leaders.
The low-code promise
Low-code is a new way to create applications. It’s fast—you create apps by simply drawing a workflow diagram. It also unifies all your resources—your people, technologies, and data—in a single workflow. When you create apps with us, you should expect to build your apps 10x faster, reduce your maintenance costs by 50%, and gain superior functionality as compared to traditional development.
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The Low-Code Idea
The terms "Low-code and "No-code" are trends right now. In seperation, low-code needs a basic technical skill set whereas no-code don't really require any. They are used in contexts, where platforms support their developers and customizers with graphical tools to simplyfy the development or customizing process. You can even see known platform providers like "SAP" use this term. One of the best examples for a wider audience are website builder like "IONOS". You don't need knowledge in CSS or HTML any more to create professional websites. This concept is transfered to to professional App development. For me i will limit the term "low-Code"-Platform to so called "pure play" platforms. These are platforms which are used for app development of business critical apps.
The Speed
The mentiond platforms are providing mainly two benefits. Speed in development and "low barriers" to learn programming. The speed factors are often pretty wide ranges but we are talking of factos like from 5x until 20x times faster development for certain use cases. The low entry barrier to learn these platforms are enbaling two things. First the war of talents can be adressed accordingly by training pretty fast interested in house staff. I have a very high valued colleague who switched department from finance to IT and is doing a great career there. Second, the "citizen developmentship" is rising. This means highly skilled subject matter experts can bring in their experience and even programm it into the applications by themselves. How awesome is that?
The Compromise
Everything comes to its costs. The mentioned speed is based on a compromise. The used platform provides functionality out of the box. This means your are limited the provided set of functionality by the platform creators.
Appian does an outstanding job to extend these capabilities every 3 month, so 4 times a year.
From my experience with more than 20 releases, the quality is always super high and the additional provided options are thoughtful extensions. Critical issues and bugs are nowhere seen. And Yes, the platform providers want to earn money. The doing it by user licence fees. Their implementation partner getting their share by implementing it. From my experience, these costs are usually really worth it, as the gained flexibility and faster projects outweighting these financial disadvantages by miles.