ServiceNow Development: Riding the Low-Code Wave

Creating software used to be hard and took a lot of time. Skilled programmers had to write long strings of code. Let us delve into the experience of utilizing low-code development on ServiceNow and explore the reasons behind its surging popularity.

The Rise of Low-Code

Traditionally, software development has offered significant problems. It is expensive, time-consuming, and requires extensive technical knowledge.

Companies frequently struggle to provide new apps and updates in time to meet shifting business expectations.

These difficulties are addressed through low-code development.

Low-code platforms dramatically accelerate the app creation process by providing visual development tools and pre-built components.

They empower more “citizen developers” – employees without extensive coding skills – to build solutions for their teams and departments.

This citizen development approach reduces the demand for scarce technical resources. Solutions can be delivered faster at lower costs.

Non-technical teams become more self-sufficient instead of waiting for overburdened IT departments.

Low-code is quickly gaining momentum.

What is ServiceNow Low-Code Development

ServiceNow is a major cloud platform that allows businesses to create customized apps for digital workflows.

Using ServiceNow’s intuitive visual tools, creators can build powerful applications by visually modelling data structures, user interfaces, logic flows, and more – without writing much code.

The platform provides reusable components for common functions like forms, workflows, approvals, and integrations.

For example, a developer could use drag-and-drop tools to visually design a form for creating “Incident” records.

They could model the data fields, configure access rules, and link it to an automated approval workflow—all within ServiceNow’s low-code tools.

This visual, model-driven approach abstracts away much of the complexity of traditional coding.

ServiceNow democratizes development, empowering both professional developers and non-technical “citizen developers” to co-create digital solutions rapidly.

Extending Low Code with Pro-Code

While ServiceNow Development India excels at enabling low code “citizen development”, it also provides robust capabilities to extend applications using professional code when needed.

This “pro-code” empowers more technical developers to handle advanced customization requirements.

Within ServiceNow, scripters can write client-side code in JavaScript as well as server-side scripts using ServiceNow’s proprietary scripting language.

This allows coding more complex logic, calculations, integrations, and custom functionality.

The real power comes from blending low-code visual modelling with pro-code extensions.

Citizen developers can build the core 80% rapidly, while pro-developers handle the advanced 20% using their coding skills.

This fusion approach leverages the best of both worlds.

Low-Code for Automation and Integration

A major advantage of ServiceNow’s low-code platform is how it enables companies to rapidly build automated processes that streamline work across different teams, systems, and departments.

Using visual tools, creators can design sophisticated process flows that automatically route work, enforce business rules, execute scripts, post data updates across systems, send notifications, provision resources, and much more – all without intensive coding.

For example, an enterprise could automate its employee onboarding process using ServiceNow.

A new hire form could trigger provisioning workflows that automatically create accounts across different HR, IT, and finance systems.

Approvals could be enforced with visual routing rules, while automated emails notify managers of new hires.

ServiceNow also provides turnkey Spokes connectors that make it easy to integrate these automated workflows with cloud data sources, web services, RPA bots, and other external systems. Low-code tools dramatically accelerate connecting historically siloed systems.

Upskilling Teams for Low-Code Success

As low-code adoption increases, companies need to invest in upskilling their workforce with these new development approaches. A few strategies include:

Providing Low-Code Training and Certifications Enroll team members in ServiceNow’s official training courses and certification paths. This builds foundational low-code skills.

Identify potential citizen developers from business units and run boot camps or hackathons for hands-on low-code training.

Partnering with Low-Code Experts and Consultants Engage experienced consultants who can mentor your teams, share expertise, and help implement governance.

The key is developing a balance of citizen developers and technical developers working together using ServiceNow’s low-code and pro-code capabilities in unison.

Governing the Low-Code Landscape

As more teams build apps using low code, governance becomes critical to ensure consistency, quality, and alignment with IT strategies.

Common low-code governance practices include:

● Establishing naming conventions and development standards
● Implementing approval workflows for app promotion between environments
● Enforcing testing processes and code quality checks
● Managing licensing and infrastructure provisioning
● ServiceNow Development India provides admin tools for monitoring performance, app portfolios, integration certifications, and managing the development lifecycle.

It’s important to strike the right balance – too much governance creates bottlenecks, while too little causes ungoverned sprawl. An agile, collaborative approach works best.

Low-Code Use Cases Across Enterprises

ServiceNow’s low-code capabilities have enabled digital transformation across a wide range of enterprise use cases, including:

● IT Service Management (ITSM)
● Building self-service portals and automated workflows for incidents, changes, request fulfilment
● Automating CMDB processes and discovery
● Integrating monitoring and event data
● Customer Service
● Creating omnichannel customer experiences and case management
● Automating service catalogue, contract management and renewals
● Building conversational virtual agents
● Employee Experience
● Streamlining HR services, onboarding, knowledge management
● Delivering personalized employee hubs and portals
● Automating workplace services like facilities and legal
● Security & Risk
● Unified security response automation and case management
● Compliance monitoring and automated certifications
● Vulnerability management and patching automation
● The low-code capabilities make ServiceNow an exceptionally versatile platform across departments.
The Future of Low-Code Development
While low code is quickly becoming a standard practice across enterprises, the technology is still rapidly evolving and advancing.

Key future trends driving low-code forward include:

● Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning – AI will increasingly be embedded into low-code platforms to provide smarter tooling, predictive advice, and automated ways to generate application models.

● Internet of Things (IoT) integration – As IoT devices proliferate, low-code will simplify designing workflows interacting with sensor data, industrial devices & equipment.

● Improved governance and security controls – Platforms will build in more robust governance guardrails, security certifications and compliance automation for low-code assets.

Overall, low code is not just a fad – it’s the future of software development.

Mastering low-code skills will become a core competency for professionals across domains like IT, engineering, operations and more.

Conclusion

Low-code development on ServiceNow provides a powerful visual approach for rapidly building enterprise applications and automating digital processes.

By abstracting away coding complexity, ServiceNow empowers more “citizen developers” to create solutions independently.

As AI, integrations, governance and other capabilities advance, low-code will continue growing in relevance across industries.

The low-code wave is here, and ServiceNow is surfing the crest. Learning these skills unlocks immense potential for career growth and elevated business impact.

FAQ’s

1) What skills are needed for low-code development on ServiceNow?

While traditional software development requires extensive coding expertise, the low-code approach makes app building more accessible.

However, developers still need certain skills:

● Understanding data modelling and how to design effective data structures
● Experience with process analysis to map out efficient workflows
● Ability to translate business requirements into technical components
● Basic scripting/coding knowledge to handle advanced customizations
● User experience design principles for intuitive interfaces

The real power comes from blending technical and functional skills. Non-tech employees bring deep process/domain expertise, while IT provides coding/architecture guidance.

2) Is low-code development secure and scalable for enterprise use?

Absolutely – low-code platforms like ServiceNow are built for the needs of large enterprises.

Applications created using low-code tools are secure and scalable by design:

● Robust governance controls and role-based access restrictions
● End-to-end lifecycle management and deployment processes
● Certified integrations that uphold data/app integrity
● Performance monitoring and optimization recommendations
● Established version control and documentation standards

Rather than increasing risks, low-code enhances governance compared to ad-hoc development. Platforms provide a secure, managed environment.

3) Won’t low-code make developers obsolete eventually?

Not at all – low-code democratizes development, but technical skills remain essential. As low-code adoption grows, developers will evolve into distinct roles:

● “Citizen Developers” build core apps using visual low-code tools
● Professional Developers handle complex coding extensions
● Low-Code Architects design reusable components and set standards
● DevOps Engineers streamline automated build/deploy pipelines

The key is achieving the right balance. Citizen developers accelerate basic apps, while professional developers focus on high-value customizations.

This collaborative, fusion team model optimizes efficiency.