[pjmlp]

With low code / no code systems like Power Automate, Boomi, Workato you can already do plenty of enterprise workflows without a line of code, just diagrams.

Now those systems have evolved to become orchestration workflows engines with agents and tools integrations, thus several scenarios that still required proper code, have now been reduced to agent instructions.

I think many in HN don't have a clue how little traditional coding some enterprise scenarios require nowadays, plugging SaaS products with such tools.

Being a backend dev is more administration than actual classical coding.

[Quothling]

I think orchestration is the perfect description. In enterprise you have a bunch of standard systems which play by their own tune, and even with a lot of the "low-code" options you're going to build systems that transfer data to the right system at the right time. Like a director of an orchestra.

Having spent a lot of time in enterprise which is not related to software development (or IT at all) I'm pretty familiar with a lot of the low / no code or Robot Process Automation systems. Which always end up requiring specialized developers, except, you can't hire software developers for them so you end up with various consultants creating huge messes. Microsoft's Cowork is the first time I've seen a system which can actually directly replace people who aren't experts in their business domain. It requires a lot less than any other system I've seen before. You need someone who has global, intune and AI admin in the Microsoft ecosystem, who know enough about software development to evaluate an app to be safe and efficient and how to debug it, and a domain expert. Then you'll have something which "just works". It's scary really.

I had no domain knowledge of PowerBI like at all, and while I could fill a data architect role, I would have never been able to do anything beyond a semantic model in Fabric and even on the semantic model it's not like I've ever worked with DAX. Yet Cowork (with read access to the Fabric workspace) could guide me through the process of creating a powerBI report set which was good enough that the business wanted to use it with a few minor improvements... Five months ago, this would have been a 2 people job. Now I was basically a puppet getting told which button to click in the report editor. If Cowork had write access it wouldn't have needed me in the loop once the data was delivered to the datalake it shortcutted to.

[pjmlp]

Thanks for the experience overview, those kind of experiences is what makes me evaluate that long term, some of us are lucky to slid into other roles, more architecture like, others not so sure.

For many kind of products, where selling software isn't the main business, companies will settle for approaches like that you describe, writing classical business software isn't what it used to be.

We are at the evolution of 4GLs and RUP dreams.