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Ask HN: Has anyone had a webapp you're working on get upgraded to a nocode sass?

4 points by ipaddr ↗ HN
My company is looking to upgrade an application written 10+ years ago. The person in charge wants to move it to a nocode environment/sass product.

The plan is for us developers to work on the new sass.

Can I still call myself a developer in this situation?

What happens in the near future? Why pay top developer salary for a different kind of role. Does this move set a series of motions where I will be unemployed in the future?

How does this translate into my next role? Does it push me out of the developer role?

I have 20+ years experience. From what I have seen is you are only as good as your last role. Going from senior developer to integrator seems like a career shift.

5 comments

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getanwar
Being a nocode sass founder I think a lot about what people think of nocode tools especially when it comes to developers. We, as nocode makers, try to make people's life easier, want to allow them to create their own product without having any technical knowledge. But on the other hand, I am very interested to know what developers think about nocode tools when it comes to their career choice. I would love to read comments on this thread :)
russianator
This is purely my opinion from the perspective of a developer/engineer who has seen my solutions removed with little understanding for the engineering and people consequences in an organisation.

The issue with nocode SaaS products is the misconception given to non technical people about what is replaceable.

Often a good business decision does not equal a good engineering decision and the management structures in place don't allow for this type of discussion to take place. This is where developers and engineers are beat out by "it's better for the business" as a decision.

Often executive managers who have moved away from technical work and are very far removed from deep (as opposed to wide) engineering knowledge, this can promote animosity between management and engineering.

Again this is purely a view/opinion from my own experience.

The organisation needs to understand: 1) What are the needs we are fulfilling 2) Are we building up engineering where we need it

When question 2 is disregarded when engineering built solutions are discarded this leads to the degredation of engineering "credit" in an organisation.

andrew_v4
Something analogous happened to me where my role was changed to something that had nothing to do with what I was doing before and was for a much different (and bluntly a lesser) skillset. To me it was a sign that management had no understanding of what my skills and job were (there are lots of laypeople that see "developer" as html, assembly, and everything between). The options in my view were to try and move to a position that is aligned with my experience and career goals, or leave and do that at another company. It sucks because its basically the same as being fired and having to find a new job whether internal or external. But unless you're interested, it is much worse for your career to stay doing something that doesnt make sense for you and is, if I understand your characterization, a move down the career ladder.
russianator
In my opinion, you lose out where transferrable skills are concerned.

You become a platform or product expert, which can effect your career in some ways.

I've seen this in situations where products from companies such as Salesforce are concerned.

I didn't want to become a Salesforce platform expert, I wanted to be able to pick the right tool for the job, regardless, and saw heavy investment into a single platform as a disadvantage both for the organisation as well as myself and our engineers.

readonthegoapp
agree with other commenter that you can become an SME (subject matter expert) on the new tool. maybe you'll like it? they often have custom-coding abilities, ability to integrate your own APIs, etc.

i would call you a '<insert tool name here> Developer' -- e.g. Bubble Developer, Anvil Developer, etc.

why pay a dev to do a job that presumably a non-dev could do?

because a non-dev could either not do it, or it would take them five years.

the tools are not intuitive yet. save, maybe for the high end/not-so/too-sophisticated-yet tools like Webflow, maybe Airtable, etc.

i think you should start studying whatever language/stack/vertical you want to be employed in next. build a side project. and/or just be able to talk about your experience with it. get certified if you can. all the usual stuff.

so yes, your background is getting muddled. you are being pushed out of pure developer role and into something more integrator-y (changed from 'business analyst-y').

lebron had it right imo when he said all the great ones were paranoid. i think it's the right attitude to have for surviving in IT.

i agree mostly that you are only as good as your last role. not fair, but it is what it is.

(i assume you mean 'saas' not 'sass').

been curious when this would start happening en masse (in a group, all together) -- and put devs (and others) out of work.

if i had to take a guess, most HN audience would say coders will never be automated out of their/our jobs, or at least not within the next 20 years.

i'm not so sure, and it doesn't take a lot of disruption to cause a lot of pain.

i try out or at least briefly look at most of the low-/no-code tools, and they usually have gaping holes in functionality, and just tons of other problems.

i'm not sure it has to be this way, tho.

latest tool i'm trying is appgyver. seems fine-ish. good enough to replace at least some stuff. but ease of use either not great, or it's just not as intuitive as i'd like it to be. there are tons of (imo) needed UI fixes/enhancements. in short, a lot of the same issues that every competing tool has.

but i'm still going to try to build out at least this one app until either it works (well enough), or it becomes too frustrating, or I come to believe the platform is too limiting.

i feel like business model is one part of what holds these companies back. maybe someone will get it right one of these days.