This guide teaches you how to identify Appian development skill sets and how to structure that talent to build your development teams.
Skills Checklist:
In Appian, developers use visual tools to construct applications from pre-built components rather than developing in a traditional coding language. The platform includes tools for creating interfaces, business rules, process flows, data and integrations with external systems. While in a traditional development approach each of these aspects would be created by a specialized developer, with Appian developers are expected to be interdisciplinary capable of creating any/all aspects of an intended application.
This paradigm shift means that your developers no longer need to solely focus on technical depth to build architecturally sound applications. While technical acumen is beneficial, it’s far more important to hire individuals with a good mix of business analysis and technical skills and an appetite for learning new features; these will build the foundations for a holistic understanding of low code software development. As such, it is critical to plan your sourcing and training/upskilling strategies to include this broader range of skills in order to take full advantage of the Appian platform.
Key exception: On-premise installations are a specific instance where installing the Appian software will require a greater level of technical knowledge - the skills required for effective development of solutions are the same. These contexts generally require someone who is competent as a system administrator on the target operating system (Linux or Windows). This skill set is not required for cloud deployments.
Because Appian development requires less technical depth compared to the traditional coding platforms and most Appian projects tend to be more interdisciplinary, Appian team members need to be able to function across all roles. This does not mean that Appian team members don’t have specialization, but that they often have a ‘T-shaped’ profile: moderate knowledge in a broad range of skills, with deeper knowledge in a few.
Ideally, Appian team members are T-shaped resources who have been cross-trained on a range of business and technical skills. For example, a T-shaped resource with a business analyst background may be an expert in analysis and testing, but a novice in development or data design. Building a team around T-shaped resources means that everyone on the team can help where and when it’s needed most. Most importantly, a team of T-shaped resources can help drive business transformation in a way that pure technical resources cannot: they can re-imagine the future state business process, challenge underlying assumptions, interview key stakeholders to drive business value and work with integration partners to deliver programs more effectively.
Beyond core Appian technical skills, Appian recommends that potential team members possess several additional technical competencies. For example, we recommend that at least one Appian team member have experience/competency in each of the following areas:
Appian recommends that customers should balance team technical skills with the following professional and personal skills:
Appian strongly recommends a ‘team of 3’ structure (core pod team) supported by a Delivery Manager and an Architect for most projects (as described in the Roles and Qualifications section). With larger projects or programs, the implementation can be organized with multiple small teams collaborating with each other. A team should be cross-functional such that anybody can take on any task, but some may be stronger in certain skills. Based on extensive Appian implementation experience, a team of 3 full-time committed professionals with the right skills can accomplish program objectives much more rapidly with great coordination and support from the management.
While Appian recommends the use of small teams, it does not mean Appian customers are limited to executing small projects. Customers can build larger projects by breaking projects down and running multiple teams in parallel. Appian recommends that, as new projects are added, all delivery teams should leverage a common methodology. If there is any domain overlap, the governance in place should identify dependencies and coordinate release cadence.
Low-code development platforms, like Appian, reduce the level of technical knowledge required to build powerful applications. As such, some organizations have sponsored citizen development programs: enabling the Appian up-skilling of non-technical roles, often embedded within business groups. These citizen developers can leverage the speed and power of the Appian platform to address various business challenges. The most frequently cited benefit of citizen development programs is the promise of empowering people closest to business challenges to use Appian to fix them without reliance on central IT resources, improving business speed and agility while enabling IT groups to scale.
Citizen Development programs are not without challenges. Some of the most frequently cited include:
These challenges can be overcome with a solid structure of support and accountability. Appian interviewed citizen development program leaders to find out how they set up their programs to meet these challenges and reap the rewards of citizen developers.
See how S&P Global built a grassroots campaign around the promotion of citizen development to meet demand for Appian developers and to scale their business.
Read the full story here.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank aims to source Appian developers from employees closest to the company’s business problems. Learn how they structure and support their citizen development program.