Citizen Developers, Low-Code and the Non-Developer Who Builds

All courses / AI Developer / Module 3 / Chapter 19

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Classify a citizen-built tool into Tier A, B, C or D using the four tests
• Explain why the chapter prefers a register, templates and a sandbox to prohibition
• Apply promotion criteria based on Name, Understand and Revert to a tool built by a case handler
• Draft a register entry that records each criterion as met, not met or not tested

Key concepts

Citizen developer

An employee outside the development organisation who builds software for work, with a spreadsheet, a form or workflow builder, a low-code platform or a natural-language app builder.

Shadow IT as a mismatch of visibility

Not a new category of fault but tools the organisation relies on and cannot see. Discovery is by asking and by service, never by watching named individuals, with a time-limited amnesty.

Four tiers

Tier A personal, Tier B team, Tier C business (personal data, money, a record of the organisation, more than one unit or unattended running) and Tier D project. Any doubt moves a tool up one tier, and Tier D is not a citizen build.

Promotion criteria

The stewardship principle applied to the tool: Name an owner and a deputy, Understand with a one-page data flow and test cases the maker did not write, Revert with a tested switch-off and fallback. A pipeline identity promotes, never the maker.

Build-your-own-tool register

The list of tools that exist, with owner, data classes and a sunset date, kept in version control. A criterion is recorded as met, not met or not tested, with a date, and it expires.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. The sanctioned route has to be at least as good as the unsanctioned one. What would make your organisation's sanctioned route worse than a consumer tool today?
2. Both organisations found that the delegation profile written for developers did not cover the people who build most often. Who are those people in your organisation?
3. Sunset is a decision taken at registration, not at departure. Which tools in your unit have outlived their maker?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. Which tool belongs in Tier D and is therefore not a citizen build?

   1. A macro used only by its maker, with no personal data of others
   2. A workflow tool that ranks or decides about a named person
   3. A form used by colleagues in one unit, with internal data only
   4. A tracker holding personal data of citizens
   Show the answer

   B. A workflow tool that ranks or decides about a named person
   Tier D covers tools that rank or decide about a named person, are or feed a high-risk AI system, or touch a security-critical path. The chapter calls it the Level 4 prohibitions applied to a different builder.

2. Who promotes a Tier C tool to production under the chapter's promotion criteria?

   1. The maker, once the unit head has signed the entry
   2. The unit head, using the maker's credentials
   3. The data protection officer, after screening the data
   4. The platform pipeline, with an identity that is not the maker's
   Show the answer

   D. The platform pipeline, with an identity that is not the maker's
   The promoting identity is not the maker. When every criterion is met, the platform pipeline promotes the tool, which is the same gate that Chapter 11 requires of a release.

3. What is the highest degree of delegation the chapter's table allows for agentic work tools (Mode 3) in citizen building?

   1. None: reserved to developers and the platform team under a mandate
   2. Level 1 Assisted, for Tier A and Tier B tools only
   3. Level 2 Supervised, when the maker approves each step and runs known cases
   4. Level 3 Bounded, inside the platform sandbox
   Show the answer

   A. None: reserved to developers and the platform team under a mandate
   The table gives no level for citizen builders at Mode 3. Agents that edit many components and run actions are reserved to developers and the platform team under a mandate manifest.