Skip to main content


         This documentation site is for previous versions. Visit our new documentation site for current releases.      
 

Low-code application development

Updated on May 31, 2022

Turn creating applications into a low-code and user-friendly experience by using the tools that Pega Platform offers. With Pega Platform, you can deliver flexible applications that help your customers reach business goals in dynamically changing scenarios, in an efficient way.

When you develop your application by using the digital solutions that Pega Platform provides, you can approach your project delivery holistically and efficiently at the same time. Implement the following techniques to achieve your results faster:

Planning flexible Microjourneys

When you design your application, focus on a goal that your customers want to achieve. In dynamically changing circumstances, predicting a fixed path through a business process might be difficult and lead to inefficient results. Pega Platform refers to a path that leads to a successful resolution as a Microjourney, and supports creating flexible templates for Microjourneys that can adjust to events that take place on the way. In App Studio, you can clearly visualize the main elements of your Microjourney: the people that are involved in the process, the channels that provide communication with your application, and the data that is required to meet the goal. Consequently, you can think about flexible sets of actions that might be useful during the processing of your Microjourney. Visualization of the essential parts of your business processes can include also non-technical stakeholders in the planning process.

For more information, see Creating a Microjourney for customer success.

Adopting feature-driven development

Develop capabilities in the context of a feature to maintain functional requirements and project status directly in your application. You associate features with elements of your application that you want to develop, for example, a language pack. For enhanced project management and effort tracking purposes, you can use features to estimate project costs and schedules before you start actual development.

For more information, see Adopting feature-driven development.

Reusing build-on capabilities

Reuse the functionality that you inherit from built-on applications, so that you can focus your development efforts on unique features and capabilities. For example, you can create an application for banking operations, and then reuse parts of it in applications for reviewing mortgage requests and loan requests. For those three applications, the basic process of collecting and validating information that customers provide might be the same. As a result, you save time but also deliver flexible applications that you can edit independently from each other if your business requirements change, for example, when the process for reviewing loan requests needs additional elements.

For more information, see Adding built-on applications.

Engaging and communicating with stakeholders and team members

Communication is a crucial part of developing applications. Starting with application planning, App Studio offers tools to visualize business processes so that stakeholders from outside IT can be involved in designing a Microjourney – a path towards customer success. Apart from that, Pega Platform supports the uninterrupted exchange of information for development team members, as well as for users who process cases in your application. Enhance collaboration with shareable documents, spaces that gather professionally connected users, and messages that users can post in a Pulse gadget.

For more information, see Creating a Microjourney for customer success and Collaborating on cases.

  • Introduction to application development

    Start building your applications in a user-friendly and seamless way by implementing low-code digital solutions. Save time when you create your applications by using templates, develop various aspects of your application by engaging collaborators with different skills and roles, and increase work efficiency by configuring your application for reuse. To meet your unique needs, use the Pega Platform authoring portals.

  • Building your first application

    Create low-code applications in a user-friendly and intuitive way by working with Pega Platform. With various out-of-the-box tools, you can define customer journeys, develop applications, track your progress, and communicate with team members and stakeholders.

  • Understanding project roles and personas

    For the best user experience, define how users interact with your application by understanding what roles and personas your project requires. When you know who uses your application, and how, you can update the interactions to provide the most relevant content to users.

  • Designing applications for reuse and extension

    Save time and speed up your application development process by designing your applications for reuse and extension. When you create reusable elements, such as rules and classes, you can implement them again in future projects, to make your work more efficient.

  • Building logic and calculating values in your application

    Provide automations for calculating values and implementing logic so that your application can flexibly respond to unique conditions at run time. For example, you can create a process of transforming data, and, as a result, present users with relevant information when they perform work.

  • Developing applications in branches

    Your teams can develop multiple features simultaneously without overwriting work and causing conflicts by implementing branched application development. During branched development, developers can make changes in one ruleset that affect other developers only after you merge the changes into a target ruleset. As a result, you speed up application development and can clearly analyze what changes your application includes.

  • Delivering application documentation

    Deliver application documentation to stakeholders for transparent application development, and to end users to ensure that they have enough information to independently use your software.

  • Troubleshooting tools and techniques

    Maintain good quality and health of your application by using troubleshooting tools and techniques that Pega Platform provides. You can view application metrics to locate any issues, and then fix them, so that you deliver top quality application.

  • Next topic Introduction to application development

Have a question? Get answers now.

Visit the Support Center to ask questions, engage in discussions, share ideas, and help others.

Did you find this content helpful?

Want to help us improve this content?

We'd prefer it if you saw us at our best.

Pega.com is not optimized for Internet Explorer. For the optimal experience, please use:

Close Deprecation Notice
Contact us