The growth of application-building programmes, with graphical, task-oriented environments, reusable templates and automatic design assistants has revolutionised the way businesses can approach the development of IT systems.

Marks and Spencer is a convert. In the late 1980s, the retail chain employed several hundred programmers. Now it has none that are not either contractors or based offshore. “The need for programmers has declined and instead we have super users using a lot more standard applications,” IT director Darrell Stein told Computing.

“Programmers used to write reports, now a super user can do it using software such as Business Objects.”

One of the major benefits is to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings between the business and its IT developers, according to Dr Nikolay Mehandjiev, senior lecturer at the University of Manchester’s School of Informatics.

“Business people can create software matching their needs as soon as these needs emerge, avoiding the transaction costs and delays associated with having other parties in the loop,” he said.

Speed is critical for businesses with an eye on their competitive edge.

“User programmers can be a positive differentiator in the struggle for speed to market,” said Arista Insurance head of business systems Dave Cheeseman.

“With the right tools, our people have the insurance knowledge needed to bring products to market which programmers do not have.

“It is about a combination of skills: we have business analysts who have a background in underwriting or have worked in distribution, but also have a flair for programming.”

But not everyone is convinced.

There are considerable dangers, and software development tools are still far from intuitive, says Philip Virgo, strategic adviser for the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS).

“Expecting users to define their own needs and then programme them directly often produces a result that is not fit for purpose,” said Virgo.

“Many tools are as user-friendly as a cornered rat ­ they might be fit for a Californian liberal academic who has time on his hands, but they are not fit for a manager who has a job to do.

“A super user is someone who was a competent user but is now an incompetent programmer,” he said.

The only way the model can work is with a well-developed support function.

“We should bring back programmers and call them super end user support staff,” said Virgo.