Supercharge your organization's capacity for innovation
The greatest untapped asset in an enterprise today is the ingenuity of its people. Dive into a future of work where technology empowers everyone to be a creator and builder with All Hands on Tech: The Citizen Revolution in Business Technology. This pivotal book offers a comprehensive look into the role of citizen developers—business domain experts who are driving IT-enabled innovation using technology previously reserved for professional technologists. Through case studies of citizens and citizen-enabled enterprises, the authors demonstrate how emerging technology bestows unprecedented power on these individuals and unprecedented value on the organizations that channel their efforts. They outline a transformative approach to citizen development that not only enhances companies' innovative capacity via the empowerment of domain experts, but also minimizes risk and liberates IT departments to pursue more strategic initiatives.
All Hands on Tech describes a revolution in work—powered by technology becoming more human and humans becoming more comfortable with technology. This convergence provides a clear pathway for enterprises to leverage the on-the-ground experience and insight of all employees. The authors provide diverse examples of companies that have aligned the work of their citizen developers with wider organizational goals across citizen data science, automation, and development projects. These examples demonstrate why and how to commit to the citizen revolution in your organization.
In the book, you'll:
- Discover the untapped potential of citizen developers to revolutionize business operations with technology democratization
- Find a practical framework for integrating citizen development into a broader corporate digital and data strategy, while controlling risk
- Explore a forward-thinking approach to redefining the roles of all hands in an enterprise, empowering them to turn ideas into applications, automations, and analytical/AI models
For business leaders, executives, managers, and IT professionals looking to harness the full potential of their front-line employees and redefine the landscape of IT work, All Hands on Tech is a must-have resource. For business domain specialists and those eager to turn ideas into action, the citizen revolution democratizes information technology and empowers you to lead your organization towards a more innovative and efficient future. For subject matter experts, domain specialists, and those eager to put their ideas to work while also future-proofing their careers with invaluable skills, the citizen revolution ushers in an entirely new way of working.
Table of Contents:
Preface xv
Introduction xxvii
Part 1 Background, History, and Context 1
Chapter 1 Why Citizen Development Is Inevitable 3
What Are Citizens? 4
Why Is Citizen Development Growing? 6
The Front Lines of Digitalization 9
Monarchy, Federalism, or Anarchy? 12
Like Seemingly Everything Else, Citizen Development Is Social 14
Making Citizen Development Safe and Effective 16
Generative AI and the Future of Citizen Development 18
Chapter 2 A History of Citizen-Led Innovation 21
Outsiders and Insiders in Business Improvement 21
The Open Innovation/Crowdsourcing Movement 23
Open Source in Software 25
The Maker Movement 26
The Growth of Citizen Science—Starting with Ornithology 28
A Slow but Pronounced Shift 30
Chapter 3 The Citizen Journey 33
Diverse Journeys 33
Initial Capabilities 34
Automation Comes Next 36
The Journey to More Sophisticated Analytics 36
The Citizen’s Career in a Large Organization—for a While 37
Citizen Data Science in an Organization That Welcomes Them 40
A More Dramatic Career Transformation 41
The Citizen as Rogue Agent 43
The Citizen as Entrepreneur 44
A Citizen Data Science Startup 46
Part 2 Calling All Hands 49
Chapter 4 Citizen Development Using Low-Code/ No-Code Tools 51
How Did We Get Here? 53
It’s Not Just Citizens 53
What Can an Organization Do with Low-Code/ No-Code? 54
Citizen/Professional Collaboration and Fusion Teams 56
Generative AI as a No-Code Solution 58
How to Succeed with Low-Code/No-Code 59
Management Challenges with Low-Code/No-Code 60
Chapter 5 Citizen Automation 63
Citizen Automator 64
Types of Work Well-Suited to Automation 64
Integrating Between Systems as Human APIs 65
Performing a Series of Tasks: Workflow 67
Making Decisions Based on Defined Rules 68
The Offices Where Automation Plays 69
Back Office 69
Front Office 69
Middle Office 70
The Origin Story of Broad Automation Adoption 70
Who Is a Citizen Automator? 72
Where Does Citizen Automation Belong? 73
What Is the Upside of Citizen Automation? 74
Idea/Execution Overlap 74
Prototyping the Future State 75
Increased Speed 76
Employee Experience and Loyalty 77
Fostering Cross-Departmental Innovation 77
What Can Go Wrong? 78
Overhyped and Under-Delivered 78
Paving Cow Paths 78
Technical Debt 79
The Future of Citizen Automation 80
Chapter 6 Citizen Data Science 81
Citizen Data Analysis 82
True Citizen Data Science 85
What Is the Upside of True Citizen Data Science? 87
What Kinds of People Become Citizen Data Scientists? 88
What Can Go Wrong? 90
What Kinds of Problems Should Citizen Data Scientists Take On? 92
Citizen Data Science for Generative AI 93
Citizen Data Science and Data Flow Automation 95
How Can Citizen Data Scientists Work in Data Science Teams? 96
How Will the Citizen Data Scientist Role Evolve Over Time? 98
Chapter 7 The Skills and Personality of Citizens 101
Workers of the Future, in the Future of Work 101
Personality Traits of a Citizen Developer 103
Passion 103
Curiosity and Willingness to Learn 104
Perseverance and Grit 105
Creativity and Innovation 106
Mindset 107
Entrepreneurial Mindset 107
Computational Mindset 108
Hybrid Mindset 109
Skills of the Future 109
Skills of Citizen Developers 110
Domain-Specific Skills 111
Literacies 112
Data Literacy 112
Analytics Literacy 113
Digital Literacy 115
Technical Skills 116
Human Relationship Skills 119
Communication and Collaboration Skills 120
Political Skills 121
The Final Tally 121
Chapter 8 The Citizen Champion: With and Without Air Cover 123
Shell: High Air Cover 124
Dentsu and Tinuiti: Air Cover, but Citizen Focus When Ready 125
Arcadis: Growing Air Cover Over Time 126
Quiet Growth in Citizen Development at Amtrak 128
Lessons from Citizen Development Champions 130
The Long-Term Fate of Citizen Development Champions 132
Part 3 Getting to Work 133
Chapter 9 The Citizen Tech Landscape 135
Information Technology Is Important—Duh! 136
What Makes a Tool Citizen-Ready? 136
The Evolution of Programming Languages 137
Current Citizen Tools and Platform Landscape 138
Low-Code/No-Code Application Platforms for Citizen Development 138
Citizen Automation Technologies 139
Robotic Process Automation for Execution 141
IDP: Helping RPA See 142
Other Tools in the Automation Stack 143
Citizen Data Science Technologies 143
New Developments for Citizens in Business Intelligence 145
The Generative AI Era of Citizen Development 147
Chapter 10 Benefits of Citizen Development 151
Targeting and Scaling Improvement Benefits 152
Innovation and Experimentation Benefits 155
Chapter 11 The Organizational Response to Citizen Technology 161
The Two Stereotypical Positions 161
Beyond the IT Resistance Stereotype 163
An Emerging Third Party 165
“Governance” of Citizen Technologies 167
Citizen Technology in Highly Regulated Businesses 170
Putting It All Together: Balancing Risk and Reward 172
Part 4 Setting Sail 175
Chapter 12 Preparing to Set Sail 177
Maturity Models 178
Citizen Development Maturity Model 178
Stage 0: Random Acts of Citizenry 179
Stage 1: Awareness 179
Stage 2: Acceptance and Focused Exploration 180
Stage 3: Formal Adoption 180
Stage 4: Industrialization 181
Stage 5: Absorption 181
Cast of Characters 182
Leading Roles 182
Citizen Developers 183
Citizen Automators 183
Citizen Data Scientists 184
A Citizen by Any Other Name 184
Supporting Roles 184
Citizen Champion 184
Citizen Coach 184
Citizen Librarian 184
Stakeholders 185
The 4G Approach to Citizen-Readiness 186
Chapter 13 Genesis 187
Genesis Fork 1: Submit or Just Commit 187
Submit, Then Commit 188
Commit 189
Fork 2: Create or Orchestrate 190
Create Your Citizenry 191
Orchestrate Your Citizenry 192
Fork 3: Revolution or Evolution 193
Revolution 193
Evolution 194
Starting Strong with the Fundamentals 195
Benefits 195
Talent 197
Key Performance Indicators 197
Chapter 14 Governance 201
Fork 4: Tolerate Risk or Avoid Risk 202
Risk Tolerance 202
Risk Avoidance 203
Fork 5: Bottom Up vs. Top Down 204
Top-Down Governance 204
Bottom-Up Governance 205
Fork 6: Centralize or Federate 206
Centralized Governance 207
Federated Governance 207
Enabling a Successful Voyage 209
Risks 209
Organizational Structure 211
Governance Models 212
Chapter 15 Guidance 215
Fork 7: Solo or in Teams 215
Go Alone 215
Go Together 216
Fork 8: Direct or Explore 217
Direct Instruction 218
Project-Based Learning 219
Nurturing the Crew 220
Training 220
Levels of Citizen Certification 221
Citizen Lite 224
Community Building 224
Ideation and Creativity 224
Chapter 16 Guardrails 227
Fork 9: Stewards or Shields 228
Stewards 228
Shields 229
Facilitating Best Behaviors 230
Human Guardrails 230
Automated Guardrails 231
Financial Guardrails 231
Chapter 17 The Future of Citizen Development 235
Citizen Development: Too Pervasive to Have a Name? 236
The Future of the IT Function and IT People 237
Coaching and Assessing, Not Developing 238
Ultimate Fusion 239
Broader Tech and Data Leadership 240
The Role of AI 241
Appendix A Citizen-Ready Checklist 245
Preparing to Set Sail 245
Genesis 246
Governance 247
Guidance 248
Guardrails 250
Appendix B Citizen Development Challenges Organizations Are Likely to Face 253
Appendix C Additional Resources 255
Acknowledgments 257
About the Authors 259
Index 261
About the Author :
THOMAS H. DAVENPORT is Distinguished Professor at Babson College, the Bodily Centennial Professor of Analytics at the UVA Darden School of Business, a Fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and Senior Advisor to Deloitte. He’s authored or co-authored 24 books, including Process Innovation, Working Knowledge, Competing on Analytics, and All In on AI.
IAN BARKIN is a co-founder of 2B Ventures, an investment and advisory firm, and a serial entrepreneur in RPA and AI. He has an extensive background in BPO and digital operations. He co-authored the book Intelligent Automation and has multiple LinkedIn Learning courses on technology and business.
CHASE DAVENPORT is focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and climate change. After many years as an AI researcher at Accenture, Chase founded the Ocean Beach Institute to bring intelligent technology to coastal climate issues.
