How do we transition from traditional DevOps to a mature DevSecOps culture in a large company?

All answers to this question.

Culture is the hardest part of DevSecOps. The "Security Champions" model is highly effective, but only if those champions are given 10-20% of their time specifically for security tasks. You can't just give them a new title and expect results. Another key is to gamify the process—run "Capture the Flag" events or internal bug bounties. Also, make security easy. If a developer has to leave their IDE to run a security check, they won't do it. Use IDE plugins like Snyk or SonarLint so they see the "red squiggly lines" as they code. It turns security into a quality issue rather than a compliance hurdle.

   Answered 2024-10-19 by Amanda White

How do you measure the success of this cultural shift? Are you looking at the reduction in critical bugs found in production, or the speed at which devs fix vulnerabilities?

   Answered 2024-10-21 by Matthew King

• We actually track both. Our main KPI is "Mean Time to Remediation" (MTTR) for security findings. When we started, it took 45 days to fix a high-severity bug. After the champions program, it dropped to 12 days. We also track "Security Debt"—the backlog of unaddressed vulnerabilities. Seeing that number go down gives the developers a sense of accomplishment, similar to how they feel when they clear a technical debt backlog.

     Commented 2024-10-22 by Anthony Hill

The best way is to integrate security into the definition of done (DoD). If a story doesn't pass the automated security scans, it simply isn't "done" and can't be merged.

   Answered 2024-10-23 by Ashley Scott

• Exactly, Ashley. When security is part of the Agile 'Definition of Done,' it stops being a separate "phase" and becomes a standard requirement for quality, just like unit tests.

     Commented 2024-10-24 by Christopher Lee