Quickbase

The level of difficulty is low. If you have basic skills in programming and project management - you will be able to use this system to its fullest. The basic fundamentals as a citizen developer coupled with the community resources and support really position citizen developers to take their coding to the next level.

Applications can be simply built with standard templates, and customizing these templates is easy. As you work to improve the user experience (UE) for your team members you may find that there are customizations that are not possible through the standard interface. Luckily there are multiple Quickbase solutions providers that can build anything.

Unfortunately, due to the level of integration and simple code and formulas that are needing to be written, Quickbase as a system does not allow for just anyone to be thrown into an administrative role from a technical perspective. Often times we are having to create relationships between tables and fields that require a deeper knowledge of the system than your everyday user. While knowing coding (C++, HTML, etc.) is not required to maintain the system, if you do not have someone that can write code, you will be relying on developers and programmers to automate some of the day to day tasks that do not come standard on the platform. From a personal recommendation, someone that is tech savvy, does not need to be able to program, that can manage the system on a day-to-day basis would be ideal.

We used a quickbase developer for the creation of our app.

Easy to modify a template. Else can be difficult to develop a custom application without help. If you only need simple logging and tracking, one of the delivered templates will probably suffice. If you need a detailed custom application you should hire a consultant, or dedicate a staff resource (at least in part) to learning and maintaining your Quickbase implementation.

To develop QB, a user must still possess a strong logical countenance. Engineers, architects, or HTML style programmers will have zero issues developing applications in QB. The truly useful bits of QB, such as auto-sequencing, formulas, and Java, still require a cursory knowledge of programming. As well, citizen developers, without any prior knowledge, can quickly make the system bulbous and unwieldy, which undermines the systems and assets that QB offers.

For non-technical citizen developers the application is relatively simple. And with a very knowledgeable customer service team to help enhance and make your applications, [it's] even more functional.

QuickBase applications and solutions can be developed without any support from IT personnel or technical know-how. It being 100% web-based, it does not require any other IT resource than an internet connection. The user champion who knows the processes and workflow well can outline what is to be achieved, what data needs to be gathered, what validation to be in place and what reports are needed. With this general framework, a solution can be developed and rolled out fairly quickly. Once rolled out, it can further evolve as clarity and feedback are received from the users.

Non-technical members were able to become developers within minutes.

It's not very difficult to build applications. Any user can do so.

I use Excel all day long and I don't use all the functionality that it has to offer because I have a hard time learning a new language. I did not grow up with computers but I have been forced to accept them and use them. So for me, this software was a challenge and at times still is but what is does for us is very crucial and it would be very difficult and time-consuming to track otherwise.

It is quite easy to figure out and has quite good help boxes in the system. Somethings are quite difficult - complex functions like grouping tables and data and finding your own framework. You will need to have experience in HTML coding which not everybody has.

We did not use our IT department at all to deploy our databases, we relied on our team knowledge and QuickBase support. The team is not technical by any means and would fall into the category of "citizen developers." The admin build tools are very intuitive and what we didn't know the QuickBase support team was able to demonstrate for us, so it was really not very hard. Also, we only have to build once, so the need for folks to become fluent DBAs is not necessary. We were able to get our CRM up and running within a matter of hours.

Analysts need an understanding of relational databases in order to properly build an application.

For the majority of our apps, non technical/non citizen developers have been used. I would say about 10 people or so. When we wanted to make Quickbase cross functional we brought in an IT consultant.

While QuickBase is incredibly user friendly it does necessitate some level of skill with database structures to build a strong set of applications. Our organization has really equipped a small group of users to be the primary citizen developers over the system. While this team is not trained in any way in technical skills, they do have a stronger aptitude for technology. While there is some level of skill necessary to create strong apps, QuickBase does offer numerous opportunities for growing your skills within the system. They offer regular webinars, articles, a vibrant user discussion board, and in person training to get the skills you need to manage the system

I think anyone with some basic technical skills who is willing to read the QuickBook training is easily capable of building some solid applications. It takes a few days to get the hang of things but once someone understands fields, forms, tables, form rules, and notifications it starts to make sense. We do most of our development within IT but none of our IT staff has any formal software development training and we have build some very complex applications.

We basically had one person on our team who was intimately familiar with the details of building applications within QuickBase, and we would go to her with any ideas or adjustments and she would program them. That being said, she was very much a citizen developer, and she seemed enthusiastic about how relatively easy it was to program applications.

When users first look at how to build a QuickBase application it can be overwhelming on what is involved. It took me a few months to fully understand how QuickBase functions. It took me around three years to be fully comfortable in being a full realm admin.

Building basic applications can be done by anyone that has a basic grasp on the concepts. Advanced applications that use a lot of formulas, etc., will be harder for someone that cannot understand it.

I think that to develop a program in QuickBase, you have to be interested in databases and applications, you have to understand the process you are attempting to model, and have had some experience with building a database application before. When I developed my first application, I did not get any help from IT personnel. I built a QuickBase application to replace a CRM that my organization had been using for several years. I used that application a model, but got rid of some of the complexity in that system that my organization did not need. It took me about two months to build and test the system, create documentation, migrate the data from the old system, and train (about 30) users, including the time I spent watching tutorials, reading online documentation, etc. If I had had more training in database development, javascript or jquery, it would have been a much better application. But it got the job done.

All depends on the complexity of the application. I think citizen developers would have no issue creating more simple applications. However if the application is making API calls, syncing with SQL databases, pulling and pushing files to different network locations I think it would be much more difficult.

Most of our database was built by someone with no formal computer training but with extensive experience using Microsoft Access and some other databases. There were just a few fields and settings that required the assistance of our IT personnel to get them functional. The majority of the database was built in just a few weeks, and we had it up and running within a month of starting the process, though we did spend more time fine-tuning things, and making it more user-friendly and intuitive. We have been using the application for over seven years now, and annually only spend a total of a day or so making updates/modifications to it.

This all depends on how detailed you want your app. I could teach just about anyone how to build a simple app that collects data, notifies users and has a few reports. Adding relationships is where many people will fall off, with their ability in the basic UI. API... Better call an IT guy. While the API docs are good, I would say it is out of reach of most without an IT background.

QuickBase applications are simple to create and get started using without the need for highly specialized personnel. You may find that you'll need some help if you decide to incorporate intricate form rules and workflows. We have been able to create and start using new applications within only a day or two depending on the complexity and number of tables and relationships between tables etc.