Use Appian low-code to speed up development with multiple teams

16 June 2023 Consultancy.eu

The low-code platform of Appian can help companies with accelerating their digital development, which drives innovation, reduces time-to-market and increases return on investment.

However, one of challenges companies face during their work with low-code is balancing high speed with high quality, especially when multiple teams work on the same platform (or even the same string of code). Notably, insufficient alignment between teams can lead to rework and issues with re-usability.

In order to help its clients with streamlining their portfolio of Appian initiatives, Valcon has developed a best practice approach – powered by an enablement center. Experts from the pan-European consulting firm outline the key pillars of the approach and how it helps clients realise tangible value.

Best practice in providing an enablement center

Appian Enablement Center

Valcon enables Appian teams to enhance their quality and increase their speed by setting up an enablement center. Through its comprehensive and integral understanding of all ongoing activities, the central hub facilitates informed decision making and guarantees that consistency is ensured in the delivery of all DevOps teams.

A round-up of the main elements of the approach:

Approach
A solid approach is essential for achieving the final result. A clear approach is needed when several teams start developing parallel on the same platform.

Way of working
The enablement center provides guidelines on the way of working, ensuring that testing aligns with the way of working from individual teams. Additionally, the enablement center assists in the way peer code reviews are performed and provides a cross-team coordination based on the concept of Scaled agile for up to four Appian teams.

If the number of teams increases, we recommend implementing the SAFe framework, in which our Valcon process & change capability can assist.

Compliance
The enablement center helps ensure that the platform setup is in line with the compliancy policy of the organization.

Architectural decisions
The way the Appian platform is positioned impacts the speed with which developments can be released. We combine our understanding of Appian’s distinctive power, the purpose of usage and the organization’s application landscape to advise our clients on the best possible positioning.

Platform setup
The enablement center assists in setting up various aspects, such as security, corporate identity and single sign-on. It also helps in designing the Appian application landscape in a way that dependents and precedents will have a positive effect on re-usability and speed.

Re-usability
The enablement center provides guidelines on the use of common components or objects that can become generic. Besides that, the enablement center maintains generic applications in the starting phase, for example: outbound services which are used in all projects.

Accelerating development
To speed up development, the enablement center will be co-involved in the design choices of the DevOps team, to make sure that components which are generic between projects are set up generic. Additionally, the enablement center offers workshops for gathering effective requirements needed to implement Appian applications.

Quality
The quality of the application also affects the amount of time the DevOps team can allocate to development instead of operations (support).

Documentation
Valcon has developed a standardized documentation set for Appian projects. This guarantees uniform documentation which enables new developers to quickly get up to speed. The enablement center assists in making this available and monitors the quality of the required documentation.

Application reviews
Before the first release of any application, the enablement center conducts an application review based on Appian best practices and Valcon standards to ensure the application will be of high quality. This ensures high-quality applications for Appian customers and helps reduce costs associated with hardware resources.

Valcon is a professional services partner of Appian. The firm has an extensive track record implementing Appian across industries including insurance, mortgage, banking, pensions, and transportation.

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