Low-Code App Builder

1. Low-code defined
A. Low-code application development
 Forrester describes low-code development as "Products and/or cloud
services for application development that employ visual, declarative
techniques instead of programming…"
 This development is exactly what Pega has been doing for 30 years —
creating Software That Writes Your Software™.
 the low-code development tools create the code for you.
 User interface capabilities such as drag-and-drop, process flows, and visual
tools allow anyone to create transformational software regardless of
technical ability. 
  This approach enables increased productivity, as everyday app development
tasks are streamlined, lessening IT involvement.
 Low-code tools make application development simpler.

B. The value of low code

 the traditional one-size-fits-all approach, where large teams of
developers build proprietary solutions.
 Low-code application development platforms help bridge the
gap between business stakeholders and skilled developers,
creating a common visual language to collaborate more
effectively.
 Teams that work with low-code tools are more agile, deliver
value more rapidly, and work with stakeholders more
effectively.
  Collaborating with stakeholders in a common visual language
allows you to focus on explaining the business logic rather than
the code.
 With shortened feedback loops, teams become more
productive, freeing limited resources to tackle the ever-
expanding backlog of projects.

Building with low code tools

 Many users think that a simple, easy to understand visual
development tool is limited to creating very simple applications, on
par with something you could implement in a spreadsheet.

 Pega's low-code platform can be used to create very robust

applications in a myriad of channels. For example, a marketing team
uses a shared spreadsheet to capture and track requests.

 Using the low-code tools in Pega Platform™, the marketing team can
build an email and web-based request system with reporting for
request visibility, notifications for collaboration, and service level
agreement (SLA) tracking to ensure that work is finished on time.

 Pega's low-code technology allows you to build an application that

captures data and initiates business processes.

 What might surprise you is the application can be a web page, a

mobile application, or a chatbot that interacts with your client over
Facebook messenger.

 Information can be extracted from an incoming email or a robot

pulling data from other software solutions.
  The power of Pega's low-code technology allows you to create an
application where you can interact with your users in the channel of
their choice.

 With omnichannel development capabilities, organizations can unify

their development activities for all the required channels rather than
maintain disparate lines of code.

 Users are a great source for data, but the data that is needed is often
located in another system.

 Through a visual interface, Pega Platform empowers users to build

integrations to these systems to obtain the data necessary to drive
the process forward.

 Pega Platform assists users by graphically mapping data into their

application for a holistic view of the data landscape.

Low code and developers

 Pega's visually-driven, end-to-end application development tools
make everyone more productive — citizen developers and
professional developers alike.

 While low-code enables the non-developer to create application

code, it also allows the experienced developer to write code more
rapidly and effectively.

 To enable citizen developers with additional functionality to meet

your organizational needs, Pega Platform application development
studios enable developers to dive deeper to craft a solution to the
business problem, hiding the implementation and visualizing the
business logic for others to consume.
  With patterns for reuse and extension built into the Pega platform,
developers can build a solution once and leverage it many times
throughout the entire ecosystem.

Integrating with external applications

 Modern enterprise applications and the data they process are rarely
self-contained.

 Integration protocols and interoperability standards provide access to

read and write data that is housed in a variety of systems of record;
you can design applications that link multiple physically distributed
resources.

 Pega Platform™ provides a comprehensive range of data and

integration capabilities that simplify the task of connecting your
application to distributed resources and gain access to the processes
and data they offer.

 Pega Platform supports a range of integration standards and

communication protocols, allowing you to focus on addressing the
business requirements of your application rather than on connectivity
development.

 For example, your application can connect to an external database or

consume data from an external web service.

 However, many external systems still in use today were not designed
to share data with other applications. These external systems do not
have an API for sharing data. Other systems may have an API that you
cannot access, or the API is insufficient to support your business
requirements.

 In these situations, you can use the Pega Robotic Process Automation
(RPA) integration capability when no other integration option is
feasible.
 Achieving the best business outcome requires you to align the
business requirements and IT infrastructure with the most appropriate
Pega integration capability.

 Knowing when to apply Pega RPA as opposed to a Pega integration

connector helps yield an even higher return on investment.

 The following example applies the appropriate Pega integration

capability to achieve an optimal business outcome.

 U-Plus Bank has recently acquired several banks; as a result, there are
multiple customer systems of record (SOR).

 When customers contact the bank to change their address, a

customer service representative (CSR) initiates a Pega change of
address service case.

 The case prompts the CSR to enter the new address. Once customers
validate the new address, the case workflow proceeds to update the
address to one of many possible systems of record. If the address is
stored within U-Plus Bank's own customer SOR, the case updates the
address in real time by using a standard API connector, which
exchanges the data between the Pega application and the SOR
immediately.

 This update is possible because both Pega and the customer system
of record understand and support a standard protocol for
information exchange.

 When repeating this example for customers who opened their

account with one of the acquired banks, the SOR is an older legacy
system that does not support an API for data exchange.

 For this customer, the Pega change of address case allows the CSR to
initiate Pega Robotic Process Automation in attended mode.
 Attended RPA refers to automation that works alongside a human
involved in the process. This automation triggers a robot to update
the address by opening the SOR’s front end, which could be a
desktop or web application or even a terminal screen.

 The robot then fills in the new address fields by interacting with the
user interface in real time, effectively performing the same job that
the CSR does manually but in a fraction of the time.

 Both address change updates can also run in the background, in

unattended RPA mode. The difference is that the address change
request is placed in a queue for processing later.

 Unattended RPA offers the advantage of optimizing system resources

and reduces peak loads. This approach is also ideal when the update
process takes time because it allows the CSR to continue servicing the
customer instead of waiting for the address change to complete.

 Robots execute real-time attended or unattended RPA tasks. To help

manage and provide insight into robot performance, Pega provides a
control tower application: Pega Robot Manager™.

 Pega Robot Manager allows you to monitor and schedule RPA

robots and provides performance analytics for all robots.

 U-Plus Bank's approach to using both Pega RPA and integration

connectors to connect to different customer systems of record aligns
with the bank’s long-term strategy of unifying on a single,
modernized customer SOR.

 Pega Platform separates the application functionality from the

integration details so that it is easy to replace robotic automations
with an integration connector once the bank unifies on a single
system of record.
  The data source and integration layer are separated from the
application layer so that future changes to the systems of record have
a minimal impact on the application.

Workspaces
Pega Platform studios

 A workspace is an environment that provides specific tools and features. By using

different workspaces to develop and manage your application, you can help team
members focus on the tasks that align with their expertise.
 Pega Platform™ provides four role-based authoring workspaces, known as
studios:

 App Studio
 This workspace provides core features for application development, such as case
design, data management, and the user experience. Typical users include
application developers, front-end developers, data engineers, and business
analysts.
 Dev Studio
 This workspace provides advanced features for application development. Typical
users include full-stack developers, database administrators, and security
administrators.
 Prediction Studio

This workspace provides features for data scientists to build machine-learning

models for adaptive, predictive, and text analytics. To access Prediction Studio,
you must specify pxPredictionStudio as one of the portals associated with your
access group.

 Admin Studio

This workspace provides features for data scientists to build machine-learning

models for adaptive, predictive, and text analytics. To access Prediction Studio,
you must specify pxPredictionStudio as one of the portals associated with your
access group.

 Each studio speeds application development and enhances productivity by

providing users role-based functionality.  
 In Pega Platform, you can improve productivity by using role-based workspaces.
  Users see what they need when they need it. For example, front-end developers can
design interface channels in one workspace, while system administrators can switch
between workspaces as they configure advanced functionality and monitor run-time
results.

 Users can have access to multiple workspaces. When users log in, the system opens the
default workspace. Users can access multiple workspaces and have the ability to
transition between different studios.
 In Pega Platform, you can improve productivity by using role-based workspaces. Users
see what they need when they need it.

 For example, front-end developers can design interface channels in one workspace,
while system administrators can switch between workspaces as they configure advanced
functionality and monitor run-time results.

 Users can have access to multiple workspaces. When users log in, the system opens the
default workspace.
 Users can access multiple workspaces and have the ability to transition between different
studios.

App Studio

 App Studio provides core features for application development, such as case
design, data management, and user experience.

 App Studio is designed for low-code users. Typical users include application
developers, front-end developers, data engineers, and business analysts. You can
use App Studio to get your applications operating quickly.

 App Studio helps you visualize the key factors of the desired business process. As
you outline the process, you can draft relationships between stages of the
process, participating personas, communication channels, and data required for
process resolution.

 This draft serves as a development plan, which helps you manage your
development team's workload.
Support for agile development
 App Studio supports and incorporates agile development best
practices to help you plan and implement the capabilities for your
application.

 In App Studio, users can quickly build from a business case by

developing a working outline of the process to be performed in a
Pega Platform™ application.

 The Application Profile captures and presents user stories, bugs, and

feedback items, which eases collaboration across technical and
business members of the team.

 For example, you can create a feature to support requests for new
training modules in your application.

 Your team can then map development tasks, such as defining a data
table of available courses, to this feature by creating stories, bugs,
and other work items. Features support traceability from objectives to
development tasks to implementation, keeping all collaborators
informed.

 App Studio also supports real-time UI design as you process work.

 For example, a team that is testing the end-user interface of an online

shopping application can add new fields and make changes to
controls.

 This ability is helpful for reviews with stakeholders, who can see
feedback implemented in real time.
Modular application design
 Pega Platform applications are made up of instructions, called rules, that govern
application behavior just as the rules of chess govern the behavior of various
pieces.

 The rules that make up an application are organized into various layers, which
are modules that can be reused between applications.

 The App Studio overview displays an Application Layers widget, which provides

a visual representation of the rules that make up the application. Hovering your
pointer over a layer title or graphic highlights the rules that the layer contributed
to the application.

 Caution: The Application Layers widget presents only a high-level summary of

the contents of your application layers. For this reason, the data provided by the
widget should not be considered a definitive inventory of your application.

 Each layer is a unique application and is built on one or more layers, except for
the Pega Platform layer.

 This modular approach to application design allows the reuse of common rules
to reduce development time and improve application quality and maintenance,
even for complex applications.

 Each layer can be maintained by a dedicated development team and updated on

its own schedule based on agile development practices.

Pega Express methodology

Pega Express methodology

 Pega Platform™ applications drive and facilitate customer interactions.

 These interactions are referred to as customer journeys, which start when clients

first hear about a product offering and continue to the point where they are no
longer a customer.

 The Pega Express™ methodology is an agile approach that uses design thinking

practices to capture the customer journey and quickly deliver a Minimum
Loveable Product (MLP) release.
  The Pega Express methodology breaks the customer journey into smaller pieces,
called Microjourneys™, which drive the organization to achieve a specific goal. 

 An MLP release is the simplest solution that can be delivered quickly, and that
enables customers to accomplish one or more goals in their journey.

 The methodology focuses on delivering one goal at a time rather than

attempting to develop the entire customer journey at the start.

 To define an MLP release, the methodology focuses on three core elements of a

great application: Microjourneys, personas and channels, and data and interfaces.

Microjourneys

 A Microjourney is a small part of the overall customer journey and focuses on

accomplishing a specific goal. For example, a customer wants to change their address.

 This scenario is a Microjourney that starts with the customer's request and results in an
outcome, where the customer address is changed in the company's records.
Personas and Channels

 Personas determine who interacts with the application, and channels determine how

these individuals interact with the application.

 For example, a persona is a customer or a company employee, and a channel is a web
portal or a chatbot. An application can have multiple personas and multiple channels.

Data and Interfaces

 Data is the information that the Microjourney interacts with to accomplish the customer's
goal, and the interface defines where the data comes from or where it is persisted.

 An application can interact with multiple types of data, and data can employ multiple
interfaces.   

 In the address change example, the customer's address is data, and the system in which
the information resides is the interface.

 In the MLP release, this information might reside in Pega Platform as the system of
record, but in a subsequent release, the interface might change to another system where
customer data is persisted.

 The methodology recommends that you capture data objects with their appropriate
interfaces and align them with the appropriate MLP release.
Microjourney configuration

 You configure Microjourneys in the Case Designer of App Studio. 

Case life cycle

A business view of work

 Business applications help automate work that is necessary to achieve specific outcomes.

 Traditional business applications are based on individual transactions and are built on
standalone applications for different departmental functions.

 Siloed applications make it difficult for various business departments to work together
and effectively achieve business outcomes.

 Pega thinks applications should function the same way that users think about and
describe their work.

 For example, consider an online order process: the customer submits the order, and the
company processes and then delivers the order.

 A Pega Platform™ application that models the online order process follows the same
sequence.

Case types and cases

 A case type is an abstract model of a business transaction.

 Case types model repeatable business transactions. A case is a specific

transaction instance.

 To model the online order transaction in Pega Platform, you define an online

order case type that advances from submission to processing and then delivery.

 As shown in the following image, each time a user submits an online order, Pega
Platform creates an order case and assigns the case a number.

Case life cycle

 You define the case life cycle for a case type to help you visualize the work that
must be completed as part of the desired business transaction.

 The case life cycle represents the business model of the Microjourney™.
  The case life cycle models the path your case follows to resolution.

 The major building blocks of the case life cycle are stages, processes, and steps.

Naming conventions

 Consider the following naming conventions when you create stages, processes,
and steps in a case life cycle.
 Name stages by using a noun or noun phrase to describe the section context.
As much as possible, try to use no more than two words.

 names that are meaningful and relevant to business users. In the previous
example, the company processes the order in the second stage of the order case
life cycle, so you name the stage Processing.

For stages that do not resolve the case, test your stage naming choice by checking if
it sounds correct in the following test sentences:

 This case is in <stage name>.

 When does this case move to <stage name>?
 How many cases are in <stage name>?

Read the sentence aloud with your proposed stage name. If the stage name does
not correctly fit in these sentences, consider revising. 

 Name processes and steps by using the verb + noun naming convention.

 In the order case example, in the Processing stage, you name the
process Process order. You name the steps in this process Check
inventory and Pack items.