Digital Transformation in Small Businesses: Challenges of Citizen Developers and Low-Code Platforms

Low-code development platforms (LCDPs) are increasingly adopted by organizations, enabling business unit employees to become citizen developers and rapidly build software applications. Although technical, organizational, and individual factors have been studied, little empirical evidence exists on how citizen-developed projects overcome resource constraints. We present a case study of an SME where citizen developers built a customer-facing chatbot. Analyzing 64 diary entries, 17 interviews, and 49 documents over 24 months, we identify several key approaches that enabled the chatbot’s professionalization. Notably, we reveal a progressive embedding strategy, where citizen developers demonstrated incremental progress and strategically leveraged existing projects to secure resources and support. These findings offer insights into how LCDP-driven initiatives can succeed despite resource limitations.