Written by Koen Wijsman · The New Wave IT
The first Mendix app in a bank often feels like a real breakthrough. A process that suddenly works. Fewer emails. Less Excel. And a team that thinks: we can do this faster than the traditional way.
But then something predictable happens: success drives up demand.
Week 1 focuses on a single initiative. By Week 6, there are twelve ideas on the table, spanning three domains, two departments that want to move forward now, and an IT landscape that won’t adapt without the right decisions.
Organizations lose momentum, not because teams can't build, but because the organization isn't yet able to scale.
Why Scaling in Banks Is Becoming More Complex
Banks have extra layers that you can't simply "eliminate." And when you go from 0 to 100 apps, those layers don't get smaller—they become more visible.
Risk and compliance are everywhere
Think about the four-eyes principle, authorizations, auditability, and reviews. You want speed, but never at the expense of auditability.
Interdependencies are greater than they seem
A single, seemingly simple app often affects multiple systems and teams at the same time.
"Run" and "change" compete for the same people
Operations must continue, incidents keep happening, and yet the business wants to speed things up.
More teams automatically means more variety
Without guidelines, friction, rework, and a growing administrative burden arise.
The result is all too familiar: priorities shift, “urgent” takes precedence over “important,” and governance feels like a hindrance. Yet it is precisely during this phase that you need governance that both protects and accelerates teams.
The Path from 0 to 100: 5 Phases That Actually Work
Not every organization goes through these phases in the same order or at the same pace. But the underlying logic is consistent.
Strategy
The foundation that will later gain momentum
At this stage, it's not about figuring everything out, but about really narrowing down three questions before you start building:
Where does Mendix (and possibly AI) provide demonstrable value in our supply chain?
Which areas and processes are the best place to start?
Which prioritization criteria do we consistently use: value, risk, management burden, or reusability?
Without this foundation, the portfolio grows in terms of volume—lots of initiatives, but little focus.
Start
The first apps, but above all: momentum
The Start phase isn't just about delivery. It's about creating a rhythm that gives people confidence.
A familiar pattern: a team delivers its first app, but then the business immediately wants “five more apps,” even though adoption of the first solution hasn’t stabilized yet. The result is workarounds, parallel to-do lists, and “just a quick message via Teams.”
That's why Start is all about:
A rhythm that works with the business
Short feedback loops to drive adoption
One or two apps that demonstrate: this works in our context
Success in Start isn't "live." Success means: the organization wants to continue and is using it.
Structure
Structure Before Scale
This is where many organizations make their biggest mistake: they keep building as if they were still in the Start phase. But as soon as you have multiple teams and apps, different questions come up.
Who oversees quality and architecture? How do you prevent every integration from being reinvented? How do you ensure that security and compliance are standard parts of the workflow?
In this phase, you'll set up the foundation:
Roles & ownership: Who makes decisions, who ensures compliance, and who manages the building blocks?
Governance & quality gates at the right times
UX Standards for a Consistent User Experience
Integration components that you set up correctly once and then reuse
Measurable impact on turnaround time, quality, adoption, and management overhead
We incorporate security here as a standard part of the process—not overly burdensome, but consistent—so that scaling doesn't lead to chaos.
Scaling & Innovation
From standalone apps to a predictable portfolio
From here on out, it's not about building more, but about managing more effectively.
Portfolio management with a set rhythm, fixed time points, and fixed criteria
Select use cases that deliver repeatable value
Expanding the competence center to include multiple teams
Make results visible so that support and focus grow
Reuse is the real game-changer. Setting up building blocks such as authorization, logging, and integration patterns correctly from the start prevents teams from having to start from scratch every time.
Evaluate
Staying Scalable by Making Adjustments
If you don't measure something, you manage it based on gut feeling. And gut feeling is costly, especially with 0-to-100 apps. That's why evaluation should be a standard part of the process:
What really adds value?
What is actually being used?
What is quietly increasing tomorrow's administrative burden?
Evaluation isn't the end of the line. It's a process.
The Core in a Nutshell: Quality by Choice vs. Quality by Consensus
In many organizations, the instinct is to hold more meetings, use more formats, and increase coordination. But at this stage, you succeed primarily by improving the quality of your decisions.
3 choices make all the difference.
Want to learn more about scalable development with Mendix?
In a no-obligation consultation, we’ll discuss how your organization can move from Start to Scale without compromising on portfolio growth, quality, and management.