The key to accelerating productivity and cutting costs in the SDLC

Time is money - so why are we wasting it? 

Engineering managers - it’s time to get real. How many hours do your developers spend coding? No, we’re not looking to get them to admit that they’re hanging out in their pajamas all day eating chips and watching Netflix. But instead ask yourself, how many hours a day do you feel your teams are spending on meaningful work?

Now, look at the time your developers spend coding per week. How much of that time is spent reworking legacy code, finding and fixing bugs, or addressing technical debt? Probably a lot.

We know the feeling. Developers often feel frustrated by their inability to make progress when they’re faced with insurmountable challenges and gaps in the software development lifecycle today. 

• On average, a software development team reworks about 26% of its code prior to release. 
• A developer spends an average of 13.5 hours a week on just technical debt. That’s over 700 hours a year spent on fixing past mistakes. 
• Developers spend four hours a week working on “bad code.” Over a year, this amounts to $85 billion lost in opportunity cost.
• 41% of developers state that functionality and security have equal importance in their organization.
• 63% of developers find writing secure code free from vulnerabilities to be very difficult. 

Source: Stripe Report, the Developer Coefficient; The State of Developer-Driven Security Survey 2022 

Think about the last time you had a code review where the code was identified as insecure by your AppSec team. Factor in the grinding halt your team had to come to when they had to fix those vulnerabilities. More likely than not, they had to go down a rabbit hole to find a workable solution to the issue, and then take extra time to figure out where the heck they left off before they had to address the problem. 

Source: Stripe Report, The Developer Coefficient 

This endless cycle of stoppage and rework is not just disruptive, it’s productivity-killing and demoralizing.

There is a better way to code securely - and save time in the process 

We all wish we had more hours in the day to get things done. But sometimes we just have to figure out a way to work smarter, not harder, with the hours we do have. 

Instead of wasting time scratching your head over solutions, spending hours and hours combing through code that might not even be yours for defects and vulnerabilities - wouldn’t it just be simpler to write the code better from the beginning? 

Tech is at an impasse today, with engineering managers looking to cut costs in every possible way. Software licenses, discretionary expenses, and even salaries are all on the chopping block. But what if it didn’t need to come to that? Inefficiencies in the software development process are harder to quantify but ultimately more costly and challenging to address.

With developer-driven security, developers can create greater efficiency and productivity within the SDLC by owning security at every step of the process. 

Decreasing the time spent on reworking vulnerable code is more than just a cost-saving measure: it’s a chance to reinvest in your department. The time that was wasted can be used for creating innovative new features or meaningful improvements to your application. Developers who were previously frustrated by their inability to make progress will be motivated by the opportunity to add value.

Developers feel the biggest negative impacts to their workloads are caused by work overload, changing priorities that result in discarded code or time wasted, and not being given sufficient time to fix poor-quality code. Coupled with a lack of knowledge and a patchwork solution to addressing vulnerabilities - you’re looking at even more time wasted and ballooning costs. 

Source: The State of Developer-Driven Security Survey 2022 

Tech moves at lightning speed, so it’s important to give your developers the tools to keep up and not get left behind. Equipping developers with the knowledge to code securely from the beginning and fix vulnerabilities quickly will give your team an advantage when tackling the headaches of reworking code and addressing technical debt in the long term. 

Businesses need to better mobilize their existing developer talent if they want to move faster, stay agile, and tap into new and emerging trends. Motivating your developers to be more focused on security shouldn’t just be purely about cost and output. Upskilling and integrating security into every step of the SDLC is not only a win for the team, but a professional win for individual developers as well. Developers who have the skills to code securely will be highly prized in the years to come because coding securely means fewer problems for them to address down the road.

Starting left doesn’t just mean moving quickly, it means enabling developers to share the responsibility of security without sacrificing speed. When it’s done right, security-skilled developers improve productivity by reducing vulnerabilities that create rework, maintain software release velocity, and ensure quality code without hindering innovation.

Smarter, faster, secure coding

Secure Code Warrior builds a culture of security-driven developers by giving them the skills to code securely. Our flagship Learning Platform delivers relevant skills-based pathways, hands-on missions, and contextual tools for developers to rapidly learn, build, and apply their skills to write secure code at speed.