CTOs know that in 2025, software security involves more than checking a box; it’s a set of practices, tools, and most importantly, a mindset that’s built into your software development process. Whether you’re leading dozens of software engineers, or have dozens of software engineering teams, the people you rely on most to protect your business from software security risks are those who are closest to the code, and those same team members aren’t usually eager to change their coding practices. That’s where DevSecOps comes in. 

DevSecOps combines development, security, and operations into one software development framework that integrates security into every step of the development process. The best DevSecOps processes, practices, and team structures enable software developers, information security engineers, and compliance team members to work within existing workflows, rather than disrupting them, to ensure software quality, security, and performance. This guide will walk through pragmatic DevSecOps practices that enhance security without adding friction.

Why DevSecOps Matters

First, let’s review why DevSecOps matters. It’s widely understood that the earlier software issues are discovered, the less costly they are to fix. But why is that? Well, because when issues are discovered after new software is already being used by your customers, it’s not only the cost of time to fix the issues you have to bear, such as rewriting software applications, it’s the cost of your damaged reputation in the customers’ eyes. And for venture-backed or public companies, that can extend to investor and shareholder dissatisfaction as well. But DevSecOps doesn’t just ensure software is secure, it’s also a way to maintain code quality and reduce ongoing maintenance. Good DevSecOps practices help you minimize technical debt, or the time and effort developers spend on tasks that are not adding or removing features. Technical debt typically arises when a software development team prioritizes speed over quality and can include issues with code, processes, testing, and infrastructure, all of which DevSecOps processes can help standardize and optimize.

DevSecOps That Helps, Not Hinders, Businesses

The best DevSecOps practices don’t require major changes to how your developers work, but rather rely on integrated tools and processes that teams always use throughout the software development lifecycle. An ideal DevSecOps process entails:

1. Starting at the Planning Stage

Define security policies as an organization, and then ensure they are integrated into the tools and standards used to develop software applications. Use threat modeling early so teams can anticipate security risks instead of fixing them later.

2. Writing Secure Code While Limiting Overhead

Use linters and static analysis tools (SAST) in pre-commit hooks directly in your IDE to flag potential issues within the code editor as programmers write. These tools automatically check source code for programmatic and stylistic errors, and highlight issues to developers in real time as they are writing software so they can see problems and fix them before PRs. Key to this step is to train developers to spot common quality and security issues, while also providing a checkpoint to do that for them automatically.

3. Automating Security Testing in Your CI/CD 

Dependency scanning analyzes a software application’s dependencies, like external libraries or packages, to identify known vulnerabilities within them and flag them before code is committed. By using a Software Composition Analysis tool that integrates into your CI/CD pipeline and provides unlimited scanning, you can automate dependency scanning and security checks in your CI/CD pipelines and take the burden of dependency management and vulnerability scanning off of your team.

Additionally, automated dependency scanning and vulnerability management helps individuals know what to fix and when. It’s important for most businesses to block deployments only for high-risk vulnerabilities; rather than stopping development for minor issues. With proper vulnerability management, any issues that are identified can be automatically prioritized based on pre-configured business rules and factors like severity and impact, so developers not only see potential vulnerabilities in their automated test results, but they’ll easily know which ones are likely to have the greatest impact and need to be fixed immediately. 

4. Deploying Software with Built-in Security

DevSecOps best practices also entail running security checks during deployment, primarily to ensure configurations meet established security benchmarks and won’t cause issues. Whereas steps 1, 2, and 3 above entail determining an organization’s security policies, ensuring code is secure as it’s written, and automating testing of software once coding is complete, this step involves running additional security checks to make sure the way software interacts with other software isn’t going to cause any issues. To do this properly, use dynamic application security testing (DAST) to run simulated attacks on software applications and find potential flaws in the application’s live environment without needing access to its source code. Best practice is to integrate DAST and Infrastructure as Code tools into staging environments.

5. Monitoring and Responding to Issues in Real-Time 

A key component of DevSecOps is maintaining software security once applications are live through continuous vulnerability scanning, real-time threat detection, and automated patch management. Implementing security logging, intrusion prevention, and incident response automation ensures rapid threat mitigation with minimal disruption. Additionally, practices like penetration testing, compliance monitoring, and Zero Trust architecture enhance resilience by proactively identifying and addressing security risks.

DevSecOps security monitoring involves regularly checking for weaknesses using continuous vulnerability scanning, detecting threats in real-time, and quickly applying fixes to keep software safe. Keeping detailed security records, blocking potential attacks, and automating part or all of a team’s responses helps ensure fast issue remediation and minimize downtime, for example, by automating issue prioritization, creation, and management in developer tools, so responsible parties can be aware of and start fixing issues as quickly as possible. Regular testing, following security rules, and strictly controlling access are essential to ensure systems stay protected and teams can most easily address new risks.

How to Structure DevSecOps Teams

Whether it’s one or multiple teams, a DevSecOps team typically includes developers who write secure code, security engineers who identify and fix vulnerabilities in live software applications (these could be the same or different people as the developers who wrote the original code), and operations specialists who ensure smooth deployments. Typical titles include DevSecOps Analyst, the person responsible for analyzing and improving security measures, compliance, and risk, DevOps Engineer, the person who automates and optimizes the software development and deployment pipeline, and Application Security Engineer, the person who identifies and fixes security vulnerabilities within the codebase, who’s ideally involved in the software development process from the planning stages.

DevSecOps teams also include compliance experts, sometimes falling under the umbrella of Governance, Risk, and Compliance, who ensure the team follows industry regulations. Depending on the size of the team, there may also be Incident Responders who handle security threats quickly, minimizing risks by immediately assessing and triaging issues, sharing communication, and pulling together the people responsible for fixing them. To make DevSecOps work, everyone is invested in ensuring software is secure and in collaborating with each other to address any issues. The best DevSecOps teams have:

1. Security Champions Embedded in Teams

Engineering teams benefit from having one or more developers who understand security well enough to spot and fix problems early, and provide guidance to other developers. Security champions receive extra training and provide mentorship; however, they do not replace dedicated security engineers.

2. Security Engineers as Internal Consultants

Security teams play a key role in selecting and implementing tools, training, and automation that make secure coding easier. Instead of just pointing out issues, security engineers like DevSecOps Engineers provide clear guidance and examples, and whenever possible, incorporate learnings into automated tools and processes, for example, by adjusting risk criteria or allowable license use in Application Security tools.

3. Clear Governance Without Bottlenecks

Compliance and governance teams focus on defining acceptable risk, developing standards, and whenever possible, supporting automation for enforcement, not manual reviews. Compliance and governance teams can champion selecting security tools that allow policies to be easily configured and applied, and programmatically enforced.

Getting DevSecOps Buy-In

If security feels like a burden, developers will find ways to work around it. Therefore, a key part of DevSecOps is ensuring teams value and adopt it. You can do this by keeping these DevSecOps best practices in mind.

• Security Isn’t a Separate Step: The more you integrate security tools into existing CI/CD pipelines and workflows, the easier adoption becomes.

• Automate as Much as Possible: Developers won’t run manual security scans or be able to manually track when to scan or not to scan, therefore, automated and unlimited tests are the only way to ensure tests are run consistently and issues won’t be missed.

• Train with Real Examples: Use real-world vulnerabilities in your stack to demonstrate security issues instead of generic training.

• Create Shared Ownership: Let developers control how security is implemented, rather than forcing it on them through top-down mandates. For example, ask for their help in identifying requirements for Application Security or other DevSecOps tools.

Where DevSecOps is Headed Next

Although the principles behind DevSecOps have been around for decades, it was only around 2012-13 that the phrase DevSecOps began being used. And in the decade since, companies of all sizes have recognized the value of building software security into every stage of the development process, through automation, integration, and creating a cultural mindset of the importance of security. So what’s next for DevSecOps? Keep an eye on these DevSecOps 

trends, that are poised to become even more prolific in the coming years:

• AI for Security Automation: Machine learning will improve vulnerability detection, reducing false positives, and AI-driven code analysis tools will make secure development easier without extra overhead.

• Zero Trust Becomes the Standard: Strict identity and access controls will be expected in every organization. Security will focus on constant verification and testing, not just perimeter defenses.

• Supply Chain Security Gets More Attention: Open-source dependencies will be scrutinized more closely. SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials) will become a requirement in many industries.

• Cloud-Native Security Takes Center Stage: Kubernetes security will be a major focus as containerized workloads grow. More automated tools will help secure cloud environments without manual intervention and Container Security will be an essential piece of an organization’s Application Security Posture Management.

• Security Tools Designed for Developers: Security solutions will integrate more naturally into developer workflows instead of feeling like an external burden. Developer-first security tools will become the expectation, not the exception.

Final Thoughts

For modern software development, DevSecOps has to be pragmatic, automated, and minimally disruptive. Developers won’t embrace security if it slows them down, so the key to building an effective DevSecOps function is embedding security into existing developer workflows as seamlessly as possible. Software security isn’t optional, but it also doesn’t have to be painful. The more security becomes just another part of development, the more effective and widely adopted it will be.