Seven tech tools created without code by Singapore public officers

From desk job to digital dynamo, a pharmacist, patient service associate, or even a professor can develop artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) tools without any technical expertise.  

Leaving the very best for the last, GovInsider’s Citizen Developer Day event on July 2 featured a Citizen Developer Project Showcase where non-techies presented the applications they built to improve the productivity of their workflows. 

The applications developed by these public officers offered benefits ranging from reduced admin burden and non-compliance, improved data accuracy, faster service delivery, increased satisfaction among both staff and citizens (patients in the healthcare context), and more. 

Citizen developers, who showcased their applications at the event, alluded to a few key takeaways that have accelerated the movement. 

First of which was adopting whole-of-government tools developed by Open Government Products (OGP), an experimental tech team under GovTech Singapore.

These tools included Pair, a government secure GPT that aids in coding and developing AI assistants, and Plumber, a no-code solution for connecting applications and automating repetitive tasks. 

Secondly, it was about starting small with a case-based approach, instead of trying to automate or transform everything at once, allowing officers to quickly prove results and could encourage incremental progress.  

Lastly, organisations could foster citizen developer movements by blending exciting events, like hackathons to spark curiosity, with dedicated spaces for knowledge sharing, training, and product co-creation. 

The details of the seven citizen developer projects can be found in the PDF below: 

You can find other relevant citizen developer stories in the Singapore public sector here:

• Culture first and foremost at NHG’s digital innovation office, June 10
• SGH’s citizen developers drive a bottom-up approach towards innovation, May 26