Power Apps: What If… Fusion Teams?

/ Charles

Many have forecasted a developer deficit for some time now. Whether or not the numbers are exaggerated, companies are looking for more and more qualified developers. This has become even more evident as every company is gradually becoming a tech company. Essentially, the specialized skills of computer scientists, software engineers, programmers, etc. are being outpaced by their demand. Helping bridge this scarcity gap, platforms like Power Apps are giving rise to “citizen developers” and “fusion teams” as low-code solutions…

Citizen developers are generally business users. They don’t have pro developer backgrounds, but they’re usually quick to grasp concepts like variables, loops, conditions and data structures. With some basic understanding of Excel functions and layering in PowerPoint, citizens can build most of their business apps with minimal pro developer involvement:

Figure 1 – Layering elements in PowerPoint.
Figure 2 – Layering elements in Power Apps.

Fusion teams are “cross-functional” coalitions of citizen developers and pro developers. Traditionally, a business analyst would gather project requirements and coordinate the work with a pro. But this back and forth isn’t as essential anymore. Now, the citizens can build the UI/UX of their own business apps and connect their data sources. Citizens could even create their own testing and deployment strategies. However, they can still engage the pro when they help:

  • interacting with legacy data,
  • building API functions,
  • controlling app access
  • troubleshooting errors,
  • etc.

Conclusion:
The pro developers don’t have to build everything now. Instead, they can focus on more specialized projects. End-users are no longer stuck in IT prioritization limbo as citizen developers augment the pro developers.

IT is slowly being democratized. Microsoft reported during Ignite that “84% of organizations have fusion teams.” The number of citizen developers and fusion teams are only going to grow.

“You should always respect what you are and your culture because if your art is going to mean anything, that is where it comes from.”

Romare Bearden

#BlackLivesMatter

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