App Studio versus Dev Studio

Pega Express^™ delivery promotes and supports speed to value with low-code options in the Pega Platform^™.  AppStudio allows for a quick start with low-code features and visual designer capability to capture business objectives directly, enabling quick prototyping. App Studio is an easier tool to use. However, with Dev Studio, developers can set up more advanced application behavior. Information can be shared between both App Studio and Dev Studio.

The following image shows the differences between the features in the two Pega studios.

 AppStudio

UI Authoring: Using the design templates provide easy UI configuration, such as cell level configuration, including labels, headers and basic tables, formats and visibility​

Case Types: Application overview page summarizing Pega Express delivery assets: Microjourneys™, Personas & Channels, Data & Systems

Data Objects/Integration: 

• Visual data modeler with ability to review, search, and extend application data model and relationships​
• Integration landscape visualization of data types and source​
• Calculating and formatting email, phone, URL and simple data references

Channels and Personas:

• Define and assign personas to available portals with user management of profiles​
• Organization modeling, add and assign work queues, and management for landing page based on privileges​

Project Delivery Support Features:

• Integrated traceability with your user stories and application features​
• Generation of application documentation

DevStudio

UI Authoring:

• Styling, formatting and editing in runtime​
• Reporting with personalized dashboards and charts​
• Mobile location services, native buttons, attachments etc.

Case Types: 

• Built-in feature map, Pulse messaging for development teams and team gadget to see who else is editing assets​
• Publish to DevOps pipeline with comments, user and bug traceability​

Data Objects/Integration:

• Data imports from external systems and email account management​
• Simulated data and inheritance of complex data types and classes

Channels and Personas: Multi-channel dashboard with extensible channel types e.g. chatbots, voice assistants, NLP for conversation channels and social media marketplace channel integrations​

Technical Quality: 

• Automated unit testing​ – Pega Unit
• Automated scenario testing ​ – Pega Scenario

Robust, enterprise-grade Pega Platform™ applications depend on cooperation between two key groups of application developers.

They are: 

• Domain experts: Business Architects (BA), citizen developers, and front-end developers. These experts offer valuable insight into business processes and user needs. 
• Implementation experts: System Architects (SA), full-stack developers, database administrators, and security administrators. These experts (often certified) have the technical skills for critical use cases that require complex configurations.

In App Studio, domain experts can use core application development features (case design, data management, and user experience) and apply their business knowledge to improve development outcomes. 

To learn more about App Studio, complete the Pega Academy topic, App Studio.

To support advanced rule configuration in applications, Pega Platform gives implementation experts a second development environment, Dev Studio. In Dev Studio, technical team members can access rule forms directly to address complex or less-common configuration requirements. In addition, Dev Studio provides features for configuring security permissions and access control, managing rules to promote reuse, and addressing the performance limitations of an application. 

To learn more about Dev Studio, complete the Pega Academy module, Dev Studio overview.