NoCode: Let's get started on standardization work
AFNOR is launching the very first voluntary standardization project focused on NoCode and LowCode. This movement has grown without a reference framework until now. Publishers and user companies will soon have a common reference system, which is essential for supporting innovation.
Cybersecurity
What is NoCode?
An e-commerce site, a marketing database, an online magazine, a customer form, a newsletter, a mobile app... For an ever-increasing number of uses, you can get started on your own and achieve satisfactory results thanks to NoCode, without writing a single line of code or knowing how to program. No need for coding experts anymore.
NoCode or LowCode?
If you have some IT skills and can customize off-the-shelf tools, then we're talking about Low Code. However, NoCode/Low Code is neither a magic wand nor a revolution: superlatives too often detract from what they are meant to celebrate. But it's not just a simple toolbox either: its promise—to make programming accessible to everyone—makes it a real movement, inspiring both enthusiasm and creativity.
NoCode: the challenge of interoperability
The drag-and-drop gesture, particularly in applications, has become emblematic of these highly intuitive and visual interfaces, which are rapidly multiplying. They amplify our capacity for innovation and reduce certain IT costs. " As users, companies have a choice between an increasing number of NoCode building blocks and are rightly concerned about the interoperability of these tools.
, explains Franck Lebeugle, Director of Standardization Activities at AFNOR. They also have concerns about the protection of their data once they connect their information systems to those of the publishers. These are the first two issues to be resolved, but they are far from being the only ones.
NoCode: an AFNOR meeting on November 28
In the absence of a computer language, NoCode players need to create standards and harmonize their practices. Proposing common rules for an ecosystem that does not use code may seem counterintuitive, but the need is real! On November 28, 2023, AFNOR will give the market a voice. All business functions are concerned, including IT departments, of course, but also other departments, since NoCode is, by its very nature, aimed at... all of us! Whether you attend in person or remotely, you will be able to talk to Julie Latawiec, who coordinates AFNOR's standardization work on the subject, Carole Vial, Head of LowCode and NoCode at L'Oréal, Pierre Lacombe, CEO of Voltapp, and Pierre Launay, President of the Syndicat professionnel du NoCode (SFPN). Interviewed at the end of October 2023 in Forbes , the latter explained that " While the United States is a pioneer in the everyday use of NoCode by businesses, France has a special place in that it was the country that spearheaded and brought to life the first international trade show dedicated to NoCode: the NoCode Summit [organized by the SFPN this fall]. The launch of the AFNOR standardization project […] will once again set a French precedent in the structuring of the sector, with the ambition of European standardization.
So, tomorrow's standards are being written today... And certainly not without you!
[Updated August 2025] The AFNOR Spec "NoCode – LowCode" was published in June 2024. Click the button below to download it for free. The topic will be at the heart of the FD-DAY 2025 September 17 at the Musée des Arts Forains in Paris: AFNOR invites a delegation of interested parties to visit the No Code Village.
