WebOps platforms may not be a familiar idea for the average software buyer. As the name implies, these solutions take the concept of DevOps (which bridges development and operations teams for agile product deployment) and apply it to the web. That means giving web developers and web content marketers the tools to automate functionality for web building, maintenance, and content management. 

This should allow for smoother collaboration between dev and non-dev personas. It’s a notion that hypothetically makes web content coordination more efficient. But are these different buyer personas really collaborating more when they use WebOps platforms?

WebOps platforms aren’t necessarily inspiring collaboration 

Tooling and automation have always been the major sticking point for businesses implementing DevOps, DevSecOps, and AIOps. Take DevSecOps, for example, which theoretically seeks to shift the responsibility of secure code onto developers themselves. In order for teams to successfully make their code secure by default, they need tools that make security practices a painless, seamless, and automatic part of a developer’s daily work.

Even when a software solution succeeds in shifting work away from cybersecurity professionals and onto developers, the end result is more like changing the point of hand off than introducing new forms of collaboration. And variables like how much to hand off are always going to be different depending on the workplace. The practical application of DevOps, DevSecOps, etc., changes from environment to environment and also changes within the same organization. That same push and pull is inherently part of the WebOps trend. Vendors in the space may envision a seamless collaboration between developers and marketers working with web content management systems whose deployments are as complex as ever; reality may not match that vision just yet.  

Sentiment, sentiment, sentiment

Let’s get one thing straight before looking at the data. People like using WebOps platforms, and they’re getting a lot done with them. A sentiment analysis of the past years’ worth of reviews in G2’s WebOps Platforms category shows that both dev and non-dev buyers commonly find WebOps platforms easy to use when discussing what they like about these products.
 

However, only 2.5% of non-dev buyers even touch on themes related to collaboration when answering what they like about WebOps platforms. That number is less than 1% for developer personas. In fact, buyers with non-developer job titles more often cited the need to work with developers as something they disliked about using a WebOps platform, with 8.6% of their reviews explicitly mentioning it. To me, that paints a picture of each persona wanting to get as much done on their own with these tools as possible, and feeling annoyed when they need to hand off work. Perhaps buyers care more about being able to do things unhindered on their own than they do about making team collaboration more seamless. 

Looking ahead

Just because buyer sentiment hasn’t latched on to the joys of better collaboration with WebOps platforms doesn’t mean these tools aren’t working for people. Software markets often see people getting excited about features in unanticipated ways, and this is likely no exception. WebOps platforms’ promise of making web deployment and operations more efficient, effective, and seamless is still potent. That promise may just manifest in a form that sees more marketers using no-code tooling to handle web development tasks themselves, as opposed to collaborative bliss. 

Edited by Sinchana Mistry