Citizen Developers Create Their Own Business Apps

If you think you've seen it all from the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) users on your network, get ready for the next wave of disruption. A new breed of knowledge worker, dubbed the "citizen developer," is taking command of how business applications are created, configured and shared with the masses. (Those masses are typically their co-workers, who access the network that's managed by the IT staff.) As defined by Gartner, a citizen developer is an "end user who creates new business applications for consumption by others." But organizations are now extending the term to apply to employees who build applications to improve their own ability to perform work tasks. What's more, these professionals are rising to the top in their companies, according to a recent survey from TrackVia. They're confident that they'll get promoted ahead of peers who are not citizen developers, and they're not shy about negotiating salary packages before accepting a new job. And, as you probably suspect, the vast majority of these citizen developers are more than willing to go outside of IT to acquire the tech solutions they need and want. More than 1,000 U.S. workers took part in the research.