Digital transformation and the accelerated transition to remote work are contributing to a perfect technological storm. This perfect storm is indifferently hitting every industry around us. A particularly challenging vector of this technological storm is the ever-growing need for business automation to achieve digital transformation conflated with an ever-growing shortage of technology professionals and software developers. With most companies turning to technology to transform how they engage with customers; software developers are in high demand and short supply. It is clear that we cannot rely on this small number of specialized workers - software developers - to carry out the massive undertaking of digital transformation in organizations. One way to weather the storm is to empower non-developers in organizations to automate business logic. Business knowledge workers within organizations have a clear understanding of the logic of the business. They have the best understanding of business workflows and decisions required to deliver and exceed the new and expected digital customer experience. They excel at business decision thinking. Then why not enable these business knowledge workers to become not only the business logic architects, but also the actual construction workforce of your digital transformation? In this session we discuss the emergence of the low-code paradigm as a required enabler to the timely achievement of the desired digital transformation. We compare the notions of no-code, low-code and pro-code and discuss how business knowledge workers can learn to think more like software developers by adopting a Decision Thinking mindset. Using the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) as the cornerstone of decision thinking and the Friendly Enough Expression Language (FEEL) as the low-code language of choice, we show how business knowledge workers can take business automation to production faster, gain simple and efficient ways of making enhancements, and maintain the deployed automated business logic. FEEL is simple enough for business knowledge workers yet expressive and powerful enough for professional developers. In short, FEEL offers the perfect scaffolding for the automation of business logic. With FEEL as a low code language, business knowledge workers can truly become the artisans of the digital transformation.

1. Trisotech.com
How do you FEEL about
Low Code?
Denis Gagne
CEO & CTO
DECISION CAMP 2022

2. Trisotech.com
Abstract
 Digital transformation and the accelerated transition to remote work are contributing to a perfect technological storm. This perfect
storm is indifferently hitting every industry around us. A particularly challenging vector of this technological storm is the ever-
growing need for business automation to achieve digital transformation conflated with an ever-growing shortage of technology
professionals and software developers. With most companies turning to technology to transform how they engage with customers;
software developers are in high demand and short supply. It is clear that we cannot rely on this small number of specialized workers -
software developers - to carry out the massive undertaking of digital transformation in organizations.
 One way to weather the storm is to empower non-developers in organizations to automate business logic. Business knowledge
workers within organizations have a clear understanding of the logic of the business. They have the best understanding of business
workflows and decisions required to deliver and exceed the new and expected digital customer experience. They excel at business
decision thinking. Then why not enable these business knowledge workers to become not only the business logic architects, but also
the actual construction workforce of your digital transformation?
 In this session we discuss the emergence of the low-code paradigm as a required enabler to the timely achievement of the desired
digital transformation. We compare the notions of no-code, low-code and pro-code and discuss how business knowledge workers
can learn to think more like software developers by adopting a Decision Thinking mindset. Using the Decision Model and Notation
(DMN) as the cornerstone of decision thinking and the Friendly Enough Expression Language (FEEL) as the low-code language of
choice, we show how business knowledge workers can take business automation to production faster, gain simple and efficient ways
of making enhancements, and maintain the deployed automated business logic. FEEL is simple enough for business knowledge
workers yet expressive and powerful enough for professional developers. In short, FEEL offers the perfect scaffolding for the
automation of business logic. With FEEL as a low code language, business knowledge workers can truly become the artisans of the
digital transformation.
HOW DO FEEL ABOUT LOW CODE?

3. Trisotech.com
Outline
 Our Current Context (It’s a wild world)
 Weathering the Storm (Not just surviving but thriving)
 No Code, Low Code, Pro Code (Software Development Paradigms)
 FEEL (An ideal Low Code language!)
 How does FEEL compare? (Is it really business friendly?)
 Model Driven Development using FEEL (The best of all worlds!)
 Conclusion (How do you FEEL about low-code now?)
HOW DO FEEL ABOUT LOW CODE?

4. Trisotech.com
Our Current Context
It’s a wild world

5. Trisotech.com
The world we live in
Volatile Economic
Outlook
Ever-Growing Customer
Expectations
Increasing Regulatory
Requirements
Fast Evolving Technology
Landscape
Increasing
Competition

6. Adaptable
Agile
Flexible
Resilient
Antifragile
Composable
Every organization wants to be
Adaptable
o able to adjust to new conditions
o able to be modified for a new use or purpose
oxford Languages

7. Digital Transformation Demand
combined with
Accelerated Transition to RemoteWork
APerfect Technological Storm

8. This Perfect Stormis indifferently hitting
Every Industry
aroundus

9. A particularly challenging vector of this technological storm is the
ever-growingneed for business automation to achieve digital
transformation conflated with an ever-growingshortage of
technology professionals and software developers

10. Trisotech.com
Weathering the Storm
Not just surviving but thriving

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Ever increasingdemands for Digital Transformation
Growing cybersecurity,data privacy threats
Accelerateddemand for Cloud Solutions
Reality of Businesses

12. Software Developers are in
High Demand and Short Supply

13. Increasethe number of people in the organization that
can create Digital Business Solutions
How to thrive in such context?
Unleasha different Dev workforce

14. Trisotech.com
Options
Hiring
01
Out-
sourcing
02
Up-skilling
03
No
availability in
the market
Themselves
short on
staff + lack
domain and
business
specific
knowledge
The right
idea, but
how can we
accelerate
up-skilling ?

15. Empower non-developers in organizations to
automate business logic

16. Business Knowledge Workers
 Excel at business decision thinking
 Have a clear understanding of the logic
of the business
 Have the best understanding of business
workflows and decisions required
 Know how to deliver and exceed the
expected experience customer demand

17. Business Knowledge Workers
Use them not only as the business
logic architects, but also as the actual
construction workforce of your digital
transformation

18. The Best of both World
Business Technologists:
Job is technology but report to business
Citizen Developers:
Job is business but creates technology

19. Trisotech.com
No Code, Low Code, Pro Code
Software Development Paradigms

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WYSIWYG
Clicks and Drag-and-drops
My Definitions
Business friendly
expression languages
Programming languages
=
=
=

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Lot of Market Confusion
 Vendor Marketing and Analysts jockeying for attention
 No-code, Low-code, Pro-code are Software Development
Paradigms not Platforms
 A platform can take advantage of all three paradigms
 Trisotech certainly does

22. No Code, Low Code Aim
 Timely delivery of Digital Business Solutions
 Optimize the development process of Digital Business Solutions
 Democratize Digital Solution creation
 Close the Business-IT divide

23. No Code, Low Code Characteristics
 Visual approach to Digital Business Solution development
 Simple and concise language
 Human friendly syntax
 Reusability of existing capabilities

24. No Code, Low Code Benefits
 Higher productivity
 Decreased costs
 Improved adaptability
 Lower dependency on IT

25. No Code, Low Code Challenges
 Vendor Lock-in
o Non standardized platforms
 Limited Expressiveness
o to address sophisticated business Logic
 Lack of Domain Specific Support
o To ensure interoperability
 The rise of the shadow IT
o Proliferations of business applications

26. Trisotech.com
Digital Business Solution
Development Paradigms
Don’t be fooled by the shinny new object
 To develop Digital Business Solutions with No Code and
Low Code still requires a person to think analytically and
multi-dimensionally (what I call cartesian thinking)
 Along with a basic understanding of data and data types
(e.g., why one cannot mathematically add a number and a
text string)
 a.k.a kind of think like a developer

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FEEL
An ideal Low Code language!

28. What is FEEL?
 FEEL stands for Friendly Enough Expression Language
 Created as part the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) Standard
 A Standardized Expression Language from OMG
 Standard Syntax
 Standard Execution Semantics
 Simple enough for non-technical people, expressive enough for technical people

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FEEL Characteristics
Functional
Stateless
Side Effectless
Context Sensitive
Means
Variables are immutable
Means
Names/Terms can include spaces
For more on Names/Terms see my presentation “What’s in a Name?”
https://www.trisotech.com/business-vocabularies-business-rules-and-dmn/
Means
A value is computed from its inputs
Means
A closed world assumption
Given the same inputs , the same output is provided

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FEEL Expressiveness
 Typing: Simple and Structured types
 Logical Operators: 3 Value Logic
 Arithmetic Operators: inline operators

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FEEL Expressiveness
 User Defined Functions: Reusability
 Core Functions: Logical, Text, Date & Time, List, Math, Context
 Interval Functions: Temporal logic (during, coincides, after, starts, etc.)
 Function Library Import: Domain Specific Functions (e.g. Automation,
Financial, Healthcare, Utility, etc.)

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FEEL: Friendly Enough
 Names/Terms can include spaces making it
[Business] Friendly Enough
 FEEL becomes even more Friendly when
combined with Boxed Expressions

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FEEL Boxed Expressions
 Allow FEEL expressions to be structured visually
 A simple recursive tabular visual format
 Composed of basic structures of Name: Expression
For more on Boxed Expression examples see my presentation “Thinking inside the box”
https://www.trisotech.com/thinking-inside-the-box-webinar/

34. Trisotech.com
Typesof Boxed Expressions

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FEEL Boxed Expression Example
Natural Language Policy:
The loan monthly installment is obtained by adding the
loan monthly fee and the loan monthly repayment. A
standard loan carries an $20 monthly fee while a special
loan carries a $25 monthly fee. The loan monthly
repayment is calculated based on the loan rate, term and
amount using the standard financial monthly payment
function.

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FEEL Boxed Expression Example
 Uses names/terms that are business friendly such as
“Loan Monthly Installment” (none-cryptic, using
spaces )
 “Loan Monthly Installment” is a reusable function
with defined parameters that I can call from
anywhere in my FEEL logic
 The value of “Loan Monthly Installment” is obtained
by adding “Loan Monthly Fee” and “Loan Monthly
Repayment”
 The conditional logic of “Loan Monthly Fee” is
obvious
 “Loan Monthly Installment” value is obtained by
calling a Domain Specific Functions. Function name
“payment” is prefixed by its external provenance
“financial” e.g., financial.payement()
 The FEEL logic using business friendly names/terms
is easily relatable to the descriptions/annotations
taken verbatim from Natural Language Policy text.

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FEEL Boxed Expression Example
 I would argue that even without to the Natural
Language description/annotation.
 The FEEL logic using its business-friendly
names/terms is easily understandable
(maintainable, enhance-able, adapatable, etc.)

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How does FEEL compare?
Is it really business friendly?

39. Trisotech.com
Microsoft Excel
 Microsoft Excel Formulas are often cited as, or
perceived as, the quintessential expression
language for business users
 Microsoft Excel is also perceived as the go to
platform for the creation of digital business
solutions by business users

40. Trisotech.com
How does FEEL compare?
Excel FEEL Boxed Expression
 Cell coordinates (e.g., B1) and names/terms (e.g., “Loan
Monthly Installment”) are coincidental i.e., un-related
 Making cell B1 a re-useable function requires VBA coding

41. Trisotech.com
How doesFEEL compare?
Excel FEEL Boxed Expression
From Bruce Silver blog post “FEEL vs Excel Formulas”
https://www.trisotech.com/feel-vs-excel-formulas/
 “Last Word” value is obtained by filtering the last
element (e.g., [-1]) of the “List of words”
 “List of words” value is obtained by splitting the
“Input String” into list elements (e.g., words) that
were separated by a space (“ “)
 I admit, I copied/pasted A2’s formula
 Can anyone read it to me in terms I can understand
 What does A2 do?

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Model Driven Development
using FEEL
The best of all worlds!

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Automated
Business
Decisions
Automated
Structured
Business
Process
Automated
Unstructured
Business
Process
BPM+ A set of open visual modeling
standards that captures the DNA
of your organization
 Business Decisions
 Business Processes
 Business Cases
Model Driven Development

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BPM+
Visual Drag and Drop Paradigm

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Placing FEEL at theCenterof
Model Driven Development
Automated
Business
Decisions
Automated
Structured
Business
Process
Automated
Unstructured
Business
Process
BPM+
FEEL
Using FEEL as the expression
language to the complete BPM+
family of Model Driven Standards

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The best of all worlds!
FEEL and BPM+ together offers a powerful environment that brings Low Code,
No Code and even Pro Code development paradigms together
BPM+

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Conclusion
How do you FEEL about low-code now?

48. Trisotech.com
Don’t perceiveeverychallenge as a business problem to
be solved, but rather as business decisions waiting to be
made
How to thrive?
Adopt a Decision ThinkingMindset

49. Trisotech.com
Adopt the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) as the
cornerstoneof decision thinking and the FriendlyEnough
Expression Language (FEEL) as the
LowCode language of choice
How to thrive?
Adopt a Decision ThinkingMindset

50. Trisotech.com
Conclusion
Challengesof other NoCode,Low Codeapproaches
 Vendor Lock-in
o Non standardized platforms
 Limited Expressiveness
o to address sophisticated business Logic
 Lack of Domain Specific Support
o To ensure interoperability
 The rise of the shadow IT
o Proliferations of business applications
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT LOW CODE NOW ?
FEEL
 No vendor lock-in
o It is an open standard
 Simple enough for non-technical people,
expressive enough for technical people
o Continuously evolving via RTF
 Domain Specific libraries
o can be imported
 Tame shadow IT with a
o Model Driven approach that promotes
Re-use and DevOps

51. Any questions?
THANKS!
dgagne@Trisotech.com
I hope this presentation made you FEEL good!