Citizen development thrives with clear boundaries. Start by defining who can build what: business creators work within pre-approved data models and spoke libraries; platform engineers curate components and review high‑risk changes. Establish an intake path, a design review checklist, and a publishing model for shared actions and subflows. Pair that with environment strategy—separate sandboxes, automated promotions, and policy checks—to keep production pristine. Measurement closes the loop: track adoption, reuse rates for shared components, and incident counts tied to new apps. ServiceNow’s platform approach and analyst‑recognized low‑code capabilities make this feasible at scale, especially when you standardize on App Engine, Flow Designer, and IntegrationHub as your guardrails. For integration-heavy use cases, invest in data integration patterns that keep records consistent while respecting system‑of‑record boundaries—good fences make good neighbors. The goal isn’t to slow builders; it’s to speed the right work while preserving security, compliance, and supportability. Governance, done well, acts like rumble strips—guiding momentum rather than blocking it.
