| The SAP Community Expert Interview Series highlights key strategic topics, such as emerging technologies, learning, and other topics, and provides insights from industry experts and leaders on turning ideas into innovative approaches that impact people, processes, and technology. |
IT organizations, developers, and technical experts have an opportunity to partner with business professionals (aka Citizen Developers) outside of IT to automate business processes and data integration.
With digital transformation, the needs are so vast that IT cannot handle them all alone.
Business users, with little-to-no experience and subject matter expertise, are increasingly looking at low-code and no-code (LCNC) app development to fill their needs.
The learning journey is very achievable to get started quickly by understanding the basic concepts of building applications and automations without writing any code and leveraging drag-and-drop capabilities.For miguelmeza#overview, recent SAP Certified Citizen Developer graduate, Product Specialist for SAP Build Process Automation, and a first-time low-code/no-code user, he saw first-hand that LCNC tools open a new world of possibilities for citizen developers that do not have a profound technical background.
As a result, he wants to share his experience and encourage the next generation of citizen developers.
Great to catch up with Miguel from his home office in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Stephanie De Camara Marley (SM): Hi Miguel! As a passionate learner of new technologies
(e.g., Machine Learning, Robotics Process Automation), your career has touched amazing universities, from Centro de Enseñanza Técnica Industrial to your Doctor of Science in Artificial Intelligence at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. What motivated you to continuously learn and apply it to your experiences with IBM, SEW Eurodrive, and now as an SAP Build Process Automation product specialist?
Miguel Angel Meza Martinez (MM): Since I can remember, I’ve always been very curious about understanding how things around me work. So, pretty early on in my life, I realized I wanted to be an engineer.
In my academic and professional career, I look for new challenges that allow me to learn more about the latest technologies and how to apply them to solve problems.
Now, as part of the SAP Build Process Automation team, I want to help build the next generation of Low Code/No Code tools to empower citizen developers.
SM: You recently achieved your “SAP Certified Citizen Developer Associate – Low-code/No-code (LCNC) Applications and Automations” certification. Congratulations! As a technical expert, did you find it easy? And as you went through it, did you see ways that citizen (business) developers can make use of it and work either on their own, or in a blended, collaborative way with the support of advanced programmers?
MM: This learning journey was my first experience with LCNC tools. I was already aware of the technologies, but I hadn’t had the chance to work with them as I mainly worked with tools targeted to traditional developers.
Through this journey, I realized that these LCNC tools open a new world of possibilities for citizen developers that don’t have a profound technical background. I believe these high-quality learnings enable citizen developers to utilize these LCNC tools alone or in collaboration with other more technical developers.
SM: How did you hear about this low-code/no-code certification?
MM: This learning journey was recommended by a few SAP colleagues as a way to get familiar with SAP Build Process Automation. They told me it would be a great starting point to understand the product’s capabilities and get hands-on experience. I am pleased that I followed their recommendation.
SM: What part of the certification interested you the most (e.g., Building a LCNC Mobile App, SAP Extension with SAP Build Apps, SAP Build Process Automation, or SAP Build Work Zone)? Have you had the opportunity to create a proof of concept? If so, for what use case (or scenario)?
MM: Considering my background in developing applications, I was very excited to see the functionality of “SAP Build Apps” (formerly SAP AppGyver). I was quite surprised at how easy it was to design a User Interface (UI) and connect it to the application’s logic.
“SAP Build Apps” really simplifies the development of applications for citizen developers. Moreover, I was very excited at seeing all the potential use cases that can be implemented using “SAP Build Process Automation” to automate everyday tasks.
I have been able to replicate the use cases presented in the learning journey. I am looking forward to implementing further proof of concepts.
SM: An SAP colleague, Enkhzul Sukhbayar, with a marketing and communications background, wrote an excellent blog, “Now Available! SAP Build Process Automation Learning Journey Unit with Certification.” Are you equally optimistic that a non-programmer can build their first process with LCNC?
MM: Yes, I am equally optimistic that users with no programming background will be able to learn the product functionalities relatively quickly. Once they get familiar with the product, they will be able to create several proof-of-concept projects that will help them in their day-to-day activities.
SM: As you look to the future of automating business workflows and processes as well as intelligent robotics process automation, how do you see low-code / no-code fitting in? Will there be a mix of advanced process-related tools and low-code / no-code working together?
MM: I am convinced that, in the future, many projects will result from collaboration using different types of tools. It will be important that the IT department manages and coordinates the integration of these tools to ensure a secure and compliant development environment.
Nonetheless, professionals with different technical backgrounds will be able to contribute to the project by using the most adequate tool for their skills.
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What is next?
- Join the discussion with other SAP (LCNC) Builders
- Share your experiences with low-code/no-code development below.
- If you're new to LCNC, what intrigues you to consider getting started? Please leave your comments below.
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