Speeding up website development with low-code architecture

Utilizing low-code architecture and the CI&T relationship with Acquia, a revamped Lifescan website was quickly launched.

The Challenge

LifeScan worked with global digital solutions provider and longtime Acquia partner CI&T to launch a new website. LifeScan.com needed to be designed in a way that the Corporate Communications team could seamlessly share news about company milestones. Press releases and other important announcements about the company's digital wellness initiatives have to be posted promptly, and the team needed an easy way for end-users to make changes without affecting code. The CI&T team developed the site and process to support this important business initiative.

The Solution

For this project, CI&T used Acquia Site Studio right as the latest update to the platform was launched, providing site builders and designers with robust enhancements to support previewing, and managing site styles, and an even more intuitive UI to streamline the editing experience. As one of the first partners to leverage the newly updated Acquia Site Studio, CI&T worked with Acquia to address any technical challenges the new platform was experiencing.

Once the developers created the site using Acquia Site Studio, the designers and site builders could quickly reuse components to rapidly create and modify sites and pages — without touching any code. The team used the Style Guide Manager tool to preview changes in real-time when updating site content or branding compatibility with Cloud Site Factory. Also, the low-code architecture allowed the team to seamlessly implement design changes without impacting other areas of the website, since no code changes were required to address the content and layout adjustment. This reduced the amount of rework and bug fixes which often drain the team’s capacity.

The Results

The site was pushed live on time regardless of the adjustments and changes requested that were accommodated during the sprints. The productivity (measured in hours/BCP*) was 17% higher than sites developed in the regular CMS architecture.
We also spent 80% less effort on bug fixing compared to sites built not using a low code platform. This number is particularly impressive if you consider this was the first site built in Acquia Cohesion to go live in the world. We expect to improve these
numbers as the team gets more used to the new technology.

* BCP is a unique and objective model to determine the functional complexity of software. It is based on business aspects and universal software engineering, and it measures the scope by removing effort, risk and team experience from the count.

"Looks fabulous, great work team. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to getting this turned around in such tight time scales. Even with new technology learnings, last-minute assets and some changes, our target date of the 7th was beaten, truly, truly fantastic work."

Matt Simmons - LifeScan IT Lead