DevSecOps Maturity Assessment
A 49-question diagnostic across 8 domains that evaluates how deeply security is built into software delivery, from strategy and secure design through pipelines, supply chain, AI and automation, application remediation, r...
Overview
A 49-question diagnostic across 8 domains that evaluates how deeply security is built into software delivery, from strategy and secure design through pipelines, supply chain, AI and automation, application remediation, runtime and governance. Written for the engineering or security leader who needs to answer: is security built into our pipeline, or still a gate teams route around?
Detailed Description
DevSecOps makes security an automated part of software delivery, not a gate teams route around, a report that arrives two weeks after release, or a yearly penetration test that finds what pipeline tools should have caught months earlier.
This assessment follows the order in which security is built into delivery: strategy, sponsorship, policy, shared responsibility, champions and training; secure design through requirements, threat modeling, patterns, attack surface and abuse cases; a hardened pipeline with SAST, security review, DAST, IaC and container scanning, blocking gates, configuration validation and secrets drawn from the enterprise vault; the supply chain through composition analysis, registry governance, dependency hygiene, ephemeral builds, signing, SBOMs and AI models; AI and automation security covering generated code, agent permissions, prompt injection and AI feature testing; application remediation through one backlog, enterprise deadlines, automated fixes, penetration testing and external findings; runtime security; and governance through policy as code, audit trails, metrics and improvement.
Questions marked (Bridge) check the link to a companion model without repeating it: Non-Human Identity and Secrets Management for vaulting and rotation, Vulnerability and Patch Management for enterprise deadlines, exceptions and disclosure, and the Security Operations Center model for monitoring and detection. Each question is scored on whether the practice is documented, implemented and effective, which exposes tools bought and documented but not integrated, or integrated with gates left on advisory.
Assessment Details
Audience
CISO / VP Engineering / Head of Application Security / DevOps Lead / Platform Engineering Manager. Secondary: audit teams and development leads.
Purpose
Finds gaps across security-integrated delivery: not just whether SAST exists, but whether it blocks builds, whether developers see findings, and whether design, supply chain, secrets and runtime are covered. Exposes tools without integration and gives each gap a concrete next step and a measurable target.
Effort
Initial assessment: 3-4 hours with the application security lead, a platform engineer, a development lead and a CISO delegate. Evidence gathering: 1-2 weeks (pipeline configurations, scan reports, threat models, backlog extracts). Reassessment: 2 hours.
Cadence
Every 6 months. Delivery tooling, pipeline design and attack patterns change too quickly for annual review, and within 60 days of a major pipeline or platform change.
Framework Alignment
KPIs
- Mean Time to Remediate - Average time from vulnerability detection to verified fix in production. Target: under 48 hours for critical.
- Vulnerability Escape Rate - Share of production vulnerabilities that pipeline tools could have caught. Target: under 5%.
- Security Gate Pass Rate - Share of builds passing all security gates without exception. Target: 90% or higher.
- Dependency Currency - Share of third-party dependencies within one major version of current. Target: 85% or higher.
- SBOM Coverage - Share of production releases with a complete, machine-readable SBOM. Target: 100%.
Dependencies
Assessment Outline
(8 domains · 49 questions)-
1
1 Strategy, Governance and Culture
DevSecOps strategy, executive sponsorship, secure development policy and coding standard, shared responsibility, security champions, role-based training
- 1.1 DevSecOps Strategy 1 questions
- 1.2 Executive Sponsorship 1 questions
- 1.3 Secure Development Policy and Coding Standard 1 questions
- 1.4 Shared Responsibility 1 questions
- 1.5 Security Champions 1 questions
- 1.6 Role-Based Security Training 1 questions
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2
2 Threat Modeling and Secure Design
Security requirements, threat modeling, living threat models, secure design patterns, attack surface management, abuse case testing
- 2.1 Security Requirements 1 questions
- 2.2 Threat Modeling Practice 1 questions
- 2.3 Living Threat Models 1 questions
- 2.4 Secure Design Patterns 1 questions
- 2.5 Attack Surface Management 1 questions
- 2.6 Abuse Case Testing 1 questions
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3
3 Secure Pipeline and CI/CD
Pipeline security, SAST, security code review, DAST, IaC and container scanning, automated gates, developer feedback, configuration validation and pipeline secrets from the enterprise vault
- 3.1 Pipeline Security 1 questions
- 3.2 SAST Integration 1 questions
- 3.3 Security Code Review 1 questions
- 3.4 DAST Integration 1 questions
- 3.5 IaC Security Scanning 1 questions
- 3.6 Container Image Scanning 1 questions
- 3.7 Automated Gate Enforcement 1 questions
- 3.8 Developer-Native Feedback 1 questions
- 3.9 Configuration Validation 1 questions
- 3.10 Pipeline Secrets from the Enterprise Vault (Bridge) 1 questions
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4
4 Software Supply Chain Security
Composition analysis, registry governance, dependency hygiene, ephemeral builds, artifact signing and SBOMs
- 4.1 SCA for Dependencies 1 questions
- 4.2 Registry Governance 1 questions
- 4.3 Dependency Hygiene 1 questions
- 4.4 Ephemeral Build Environments 1 questions
- 4.5 Artifact Signing 1 questions
- 4.6 SBOM Generation 1 questions
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5
5 AI and Automation Security
Security of AI-generated code, AI agent permissions in repositories and pipelines, prompt injection defense in developer tools, the AI model and dataset supply chain and security testing of AI features
- 5.1 Security of AI-Generated Code 1 questions
- 5.2 AI Agent Permissions in Repositories and Pipelines 1 questions
- 5.3 Prompt Injection Defense in Developer Tools 1 questions
- 5.4 AI Model and Dataset Supply Chain 1 questions
- 5.5 Security Testing of AI Features 1 questions
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6
6 Application Vulnerability Remediation
Consolidated application findings, alignment with enterprise remediation deadlines, automated fix pull requests, application penetration testing and routing of external findings
- 6.1 Consolidated Vulnerability Backlog 1 questions
- 6.2 Alignment with Enterprise Remediation Deadlines (Bridge) 1 questions
- 6.3 Automated Fix Pull Requests 1 questions
- 6.4 Penetration Testing 1 questions
- 6.5 Routing of External Findings (Bridge) 1 questions
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7
7 Runtime Security and Observability
Security logging, application events to the SOC, anomaly alerting, runtime protection and application security incident response
- 7.1 Security Logging 1 questions
- 7.2 Application Security Events to the SOC (Bridge) 1 questions
- 7.3 Pipeline and Deployment Anomaly Detection 1 questions
- 7.4 Runtime Protection 1 questions
- 7.5 AppSec Incident Response 1 questions
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8
8 Compliance, Measurement and Improvement
Policy as code, release audit trail, integrated security metrics, benchmarking, improvement register and maturity self-assessment
- 8.1 Policy as Code 1 questions
- 8.2 Release Audit Trail 1 questions
- 8.3 Integrated Security Metrics 1 questions
- 8.4 Benchmarking 1 questions
- 8.5 Improvement Register 1 questions
- 8.6 Maturity Self-Assessment 1 questions
At a Glance
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