Development teams are under growing pressure to build cutting-edge applications with shorter development lifecycles. However, they are often slowed down by the growing burden of fixing security vulnerabilities. Ineffective application security processes mean these teams can spend more time firefighting than building, diverting focus from their primary objective: Delivering innovative, high-performance software. Yet, healthy security isn’t a trade-off against innovation; in fact, it is a crucial enabler. Effective AppSec programs help developers move from emergency patching and fixing to focusing on delivering secure, feature-rich applications from the start. By embedding security into the development process, teams can ensure that secure code is seamlessly integrated rather than becoming a hurdle to be overcome later.
The Innovation Drain
The pressing need to release products and features into the world means that developers are often faced with tough decisions about releasing potentially vulnerable code. Research by Checkmarx found that meeting business, feature or security-related deadlines was one of the most common reasons for shipping code with vulnerabilities.
Meeting the increasing demand for shorter SDLCs means development teams ideally want to be in a continuous loop of efficiently building and fixing. Breaking out of this loop to address vulnerabilities can sometimes feel frustrating and unproductive.
The conflict between speed and security can also lead to friction between DevOps and AppSec teams. Our research highlighted the tension between time-to-delivery demands and the volume of vulnerabilities to fix, including security demands that impeded development processes.
In an ideal world, DevOps and AppSec teams would work together as two sides of the same coin to resolve these issues. Both teams ultimately wish to see their company release reliable, successful products at the end of the development lifecycle.
Therefore, development teams should be involved in fixing vulnerabilities along with their security counterparts. However, lack of processes and resources to enable collaboration makes it difficult and often overwhelming to do so effectively.
When security isn’t integrated into their environments and DevOps processes, security fixes slow them down more than they should. With proper collaboration and planning, however, they should be able to make use of tools and automation so that fixing security issues is faster. This drastically reduces developer toil, freeing DevOps teams to focus on innovating and hitting release deadlines.
Bridging the Divide With Security as a Performance Metric
One of the most critical demands from developers as per the research is that security must not block or slow development processes or become a barrier to business success.
However, it is essential to recognize that secure code is itself a measure of performance: If a breach occurs, it means the application isn’t performing as it should. Security teams need to help developers see the real impacts such as loss of revenue and customer trust.
At the same time, security processes must be built around the fact that development speed is critical, and the goal should be to help developers ship secure code quickly and to a reasonable standard. While aiming for zero vulnerabilities is admirable, it is hardly feasible. The two teams must work together on prioritizing the most critical fixes. Firmly establishing AppSec as part of the SDLC by progressing to a DevSecOps model brings in a standardized collaboration between development, security and operations teams to produce secure, high-performing code.
Still, there is a lot more to this change than pasting a new department name on the door. Getting DevSecOps right requires both cultural and technical changes.
Best Practice and Automation are Key to Implementing Secure Coding
Secure coding practices must be fully integrated into everyday development workflows to ensure security doesn’t become a bottleneck. This starts with training developers on how vulnerabilities manifest in code and how to resolve them. Just-in-time training — delivered when developers encounter security issues — allows them to address vulnerabilities without extensive delays.
However, according to research, only half the developers had access to formal training, with a similar number having access to tools that offered training and guidance within the IDE.
Automation also plays a critical role in reducing the burden on developers. Automated security scans, integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, can catch vulnerabilities earlier on in the SDLC. By configuring pipelines for different application needs, teams can run tailored security scans, which match the importance of each project. For instance, mission-critical applications may require deep, thorough scans, while internal tools can undergo faster, broader scans to get into production more quickly.
Security automation can also streamline decision-making. As code improves, automated scans can approve deployments based on set criteria, reducing the need for human intervention while maintaining security standards. This approach enhances security and allows developers to focus on innovation by eliminating manual security checks and increasing efficiency.
It is also important that both teams use the right tools to ensure smooth DevSecOps collaboration. Security tools must be embedded into the developer’s workflow, rather than sitting separately, making it easier to address vulnerabilities without leaving the IDE.
Automated systems that flag security issues during code commits or pull requests can also speed up the development process by identifying potential vulnerabilities before merging the code. Furthermore, allowing automatic approvals for low-risk vulnerabilities based on predefined criteria helps keep projects moving forward without compromising security.
Fostering Cooperation Between AppSec and Development
While tools and processes are critical, they only address the technical side of the challenge. Ensuring a cohesive culture of cooperation between development and security teams is just as important. There must be a solid partnership between both sides for efforts to succeed.
Implementing a security mentorship program can be an effective way to deliver this collaboration. By appointing senior engineers as mentors, organizations can leverage existing expertise to guide developers through secure coding practices.
These mentors provide real-time support, offering just-in-time advice when critical vulnerabilities arise. This not only helps resolve security issues faster but also ensures developers can remain focused on delivering high-performance code.
Such mentorships are a great opportunity for individual engineers too, offering the chance to broaden their skills and further their careers.
Over time, mentorship can foster a security-conscious development culture, reducing vulnerabilities and minimizing the need for reactive firefighting. It is a low-cost, high-impact solution that strengthens security and productivity across teams.
Strengthening Security Without Slowing Innovation
Effective AppSec doesn’t have to come at the cost of speed and innovation. Fostering collaboration between development and security teams and integrating security seamlessly into workflows will make lives easier — while ensuring there is minimal impact to production schedules.
Shifting mindsets, adopting secure coding practices and embedding security into the SDLC empower teams to build secure, high-performing applications, delivering innovation with confidence rather than reacting to threats after they emerge.
