Citizen development in large enterprises: Driving scalable innovation from within

By Lathesh Balakrishna, Associate Director- Digital Strategy, KPMG India

Large enterprises are experiencing a fundamental shift in how digital solutions are delivered. For decades, application development was centralized within IT departments, governed by long delivery cycles, complex funding approvals, and competing priorities. Today, the emergence of low-code and no-code platforms is decentralizing innovation and empowering business users to become active contributors to the technology landscape. This movement, widely known as “Citizen Development” is enabling organizations to respond to operational needs faster, more economically, and with greater alignment to real-world processes.

Citizen development refers to business users building applications using governed low-code platforms rather than traditional coding methods. With tools such as Microsoft’s Power Platform, employees can design forms, automate workflows, create dashboards, and integrate data across systems with minimal technical background. These users, often called “citizen developers”, bring domain expertise directly into solution design, resulting in ...