Empowering The "Business Developer"

The ranks of empowered businesspeople who want to develop applications are swelling due to the proliferation of easy-to-use development tools, the mushrooming demand for applications, the growth of cloud computing, and the inability of IT to keep up with demand. These businesspeople don't want to become developers; they just need to get things done. Their enthusiasm, however, may lead to poorly designed, insecure, and unscalable applications that application development professionals ultimately inherit. Instead of ignoring or trying to shut down business developers, application development professionals should provide guardrails so that everyone wins — most importantly, the business. If you approach your business executives about the idea of creating a business developer strategy, they will probably be thrilled. They will understand that you are not trying to get out of responsibility but trying to get out of the way.