Why Citizen Developers Should

Be Your New Best Friend

With Oracle APEX

David Peake
Product Manager – Oracle APEX
Server Technologies | Desktop Tools

May, 2018

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 2

David Peake
Senior Principal Product Manager, Application Express

• With Oracle since 1993

• Started in Oracle Consulting in
Australia, New Zealand and USA.
• Responsible for APEX Product
Management since 2006
• Based in Denver, Colorado

• @orcl_dpeake

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |

Safe Harbor Statement
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for
information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon
in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or
functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |

Problems Facing IT
IT not meeting departmental requirements

• #1 objective is to develop, maintain, and enhance core

company-wide applications = Majority of IT budget
• Departments need apps to improve antiquated business
practices, or for new requirements in order to compete and
stay competitive
• IT see Departments as renegades
• Departments see IT as a roadblock

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 5

What about Shadow IT
The good, the bad, and the ugly

• Departments form “Shadow IT” when IT not meeting their

requirements

• Departments know their requirements best

• Departmental apps developed faster than waiting for IT

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 6

What about Shadow IT
The good, the bad, and the ugly

• No adherence to standards, company practices, consistency

• Poor integration

• Duplication of apps and data

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 7

What about Shadow IT
The good, the bad, and the ugly

• Often developed by contractors / interns on short-term

assignments

• IT have zero involvement with app development decisions

• Once apps get too large / unmanageable thrown over to IT to

resolve

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 8

The Solution
Form two ways of doing business within IT

Introduce “Bi-Modal IT”

1. Concentrate on core systems

- Stability, security, performance and compliance
2. Rapidly build net new apps
- Utilize low-code frameworks and iterative releases

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 9

What is a Low-Code Framework?
Forrester Wave Definition

“Platforms that enable rapid delivery of

business applications with a minimum of
hand-coding and minimal upfront investment
in setup, training, and deployment.”

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 10

Why use Low-Code Frameworks?
Produce better results faster with less resources

• Low barrier of entry

• High Productivity

• Concentrate on business requirements not low-level coding

• Extensible using low-level languages

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 11

Who can use Low-Code Frameworks?
Hint … EVERYBODY!

• IT Professionals

• Shadow IT

• Citizen Developers (non-IT Professionals)

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 12

How can IT successfully implement Low-Code?
Work with Shadow IT and Citizen Developers

• Provide a central low-code infrastructure open to “all”

departments / employees

• Build internal expertise and shareable components within IT

• Provide links to learning resources

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 13

How can IT successfully implement Low-Code?
Work with Shadow IT and Citizen Developers

• Partner with Shadow IT on new initiatives using low-code

• Initiate ‘Quick Start’ program to help Shadow IT redevelop

apps using low-code

• Provide access to corporate assets within low-code framework

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 14

How can IT successfully implement Low-Code?
Work with Shadow IT and Citizen Developers

• Provide easy to find information / training for citizen

developers

• Mentor citizen developers in relational design and good

development practices

• Provide access to IT professionals on a scheduled basis

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 15

The Results of implementing Low-Code
Bot IT and departments win

• IT is more nimble and responsive

• Departments utilize a common platform not disparate tools
• Empowers departments and their employees
• Decentralizes application development
• Fosters collaboration, not confrontation, between
departments and IT
• Improved engagement / shared ownership
• Can free up IT professionals for higher-order problems

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 16

The Results of implementing Low-Code
The organization wins

The apps will be built faster,

be of higher quality,
and better meet requirements

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 17

Low Code Rapid Application Development
Productivity vs Control

High
No Code
Low Code
Productivity

Full Control

Low

Low Control High

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 18

Gradual Transition of Complexity Example

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 19

Copyright © 2017 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Gradual Transition of Complexity Example

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 20

Copyright © 2017 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Application Development
Gradual Transition Productivity
of Complexity Example
Productivity

Control

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 21

Copyright © 2017 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Low-Code Rapid Application Development
Relational Database and application objectives

Database Application
Elegant Normalized Data Model Modern and Responsive
DB Enforced Referential Integrity Robust Reporting with Drilldown
DB Enforced Data Rules Graphical Data Visualizations
Automatic Primary Key Generation Data Entry Pages
Database Views Access Control and User Management
Sample Data Feedback
Re-runnable SQL Script Monitoring

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 22

Low Code Tools
Oracle Offerings Typically Compared with Occasionally Compared with

Oracle
Application
Express
(APEX)

Oracle Visual
Builder Cloud
Service
(VBCS)

Google

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 23

Oracle APEX
Low Code Data First Application Development

Develop Database Develop Application Deploy

Database Application Builder Test Application Production Application

Existing Existing

New New

Markdown Wizard Metrics & Feedback

Database

Model Blueprint
Install & Upgrade
Export
SQL IDE

DML Script

Excel
Source Code Control

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 24

Oracle APEX
The Most Powerful and Popular Low Code Development Platform for the Oracle Database

Develop beautiful, Native SQL and PL/SQL Easy to develop and deploy
responsive apps

100’s of thousands of No cost feature of all Oracle Databases

developers and Oracle Database Cloud offerings

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 25

Oracle APEX
High productivity AppDev components on the no code to highly programmatic spectrum

Components & Data Access

Navigation & Page Flow

Business Logic

Access Control &

Session Management

Browser Client Interaction

User Interface

No Code Low Code Programmatic

High Productivity More Control High Control
Business Users Citizen Developer IT Professional
4GL Meta Data Properties Snippets and plugins 3GL Procedural Code / Libraries

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 26

Oracle Application Express (APEX)
Low-Code Capabilities
• Enablement of Shadow IT; Citizen Developers; Business unit empowerment
• Enable gradual transition from no code to full programmatic control
• Declarative App Dev abstracted from rapidly changing JavaScript, CSS and HTML
• Stable platform with full version compatibility; run an app developed 14 years ago
• Full “platform” for full life cycle application management (deployment, testing, …)
• Browser based development with concurrent multi developer app dev
• Cloud; available for free (apex.oracle.com) and with all Oracle DB cloud services
• Identical product offering on cloud and on prem; includes self service provisioning
• Productivity Apps (pre-built Apps)
• Exploit Oracle database app dev, SQL data access, portability, and scalability

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 27

Oracle APEX
Database Centric Architecture
REST, SOAP

Schemas

HTTPS JDBC
APEX Engine

SQL & PL/SQL

Oracle REST Data Services Oracle Database

(Weblogic, Jetty, Tomcat) (Pluggable or Dedicated, 11g, 12c, 18c)

No Application Logic Zero latency database data access

Converts HTTP to database API calls Dynamically driven by APEX metadata

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 28

Useful Links
Collateral, Resources and Hosted Services

• APEX & Low Code http://apex.oracle.com/lowcode

• Quick SQL http://apex.oracle.com/quicksql
• APEX Community http://apex.oracle.com/community
• Free APEX Service http://apex.oracle.com
• Database Cloud Services http://cloud.oracle.com/database

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 29

Low Code Challenge
Demonstration

Copyright © 2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 30