Implementation of DevSecOps is not easy for many organizations especially small startup. on this article we will discuss how to implement DevSecOps in small startup environment.
Quick checklist (what to set up first). In order to make sure it has sufficient quality and security. we should have checklist like this.
- Azure DevOps project + repos (use hosted pipelines to avoid infra ops).
- Branch policies: require Pull Request (PRs), reviewers, and successful pipeline checks before merge.
- CI pipeline with SAST + unit tests (run on every PR).
- Dependency (SCA) and secret scanning in CI.
- Container image scanning and image signing before push to registry.
- CD gates: only deploy when security gates pass.
And this is Step‑by‑step implementation (practical, 8 steps) for implementing DevSecOps. You can start Sprint 1-4 in the first sprint and add the rest in the subsequent sprint.
- Define scope & policy (day 0–3) — pick one app/service, list assets, decide acceptable risk and who owns security.
- Enable Azure DevOps basics (day 1) — create project, repo, pipeline templates, and enforce branch policies (PR required, build success required).
- Add SAST in CI (week 1) — integrate SonarQube/SonarCloud or similar to fail builds on critical issues; run on PRs and nightly full scans.
- Add SCA & dependency checks (week 1–2) — run tools like WhiteSource Bolt or open‑source scanners during build to catch vulnerable libraries.
- Secret scanning (pre‑commit + CI) — add Gitleaks or pre‑commit hooks to block API keys and secrets from entering history.
- Container and image scanning (build stage) — scan images with Trivy or similar and fail builds on critical CVEs before pushing to ACR.
- IaC scanning & policy (Terraform/ARM/Bicep) — run static checks (e.g., tfsec, Checkov) in pipeline and enforce policy in PRs.
- DAST and runtime checks (pre‑prod) — run OWASP ZAP or a lightweight DAST against staging before production deploys; add runtime monitoring and alerting post‑deploy.
The problem is sometimes it will take slow to merge. You need to discuss with your developers the tune the severity thresholds. So, team will still have comfortable in security implementation.