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How should you benchmark security across software teams?
Start with a decision the benchmark should support. It might help prioritize risk reduction, find gaps, improve consistency, guide investment, or provide assurance to a buyer. Define the software and teams in scope, who will use the results, and what evidence can be collected reliably.
NIST SP 800-218, the SSDF version 1.1, provides a common set of secure-development practices that organizations can adapt. It is intended to be integrated into an organization’s existing SDLC, not substituted for it. NIST advises considering business or mission needs, risk tolerance, resources, cost, feasibility, applicability, automation potential, and dependencies among practices when selecting what to adopt. See the NIST SSDF publication and its SSDF project page.
Use the SSDF as a vocabulary, not a league table
The SSDF organizes practices into four groups: Prepare the Organization (PO), Protect the Software (PS), Produce Well-Secured Software (PW), and Respond to Vulnerabilities (RV). Select the outcomes relevant to the software and risks in scope; do not assume every practice applies identically to every team.
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For each selected outcome, map what teams already do and what evidence demonstrates it. Record whether the practice is applicable, what outcome has been achieved, what gap remains, and how confident you are in the evidence. NIST describes comparing current outcomes with SSDF practices as a way to identify gaps and create a prioritized action plan.
Which security metrics should developers track?
Choose measures because they support a decision, not because a tool happens to report them. NIST’s PO.4.1 examples include key performance indicators (KPIs), key risk indicators (KRIs), vulnerability severity scores, checks in existing workflows, approval and exception records, and review of collected data in project context. NIST does not prescribe a universal metric set or pass threshold.
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Specify each measure before collecting it
For every criterion, document its purpose, scope, owner, source of truth, collection frequency, and interpretation limits. For a rate, define both numerator and denominator and state the time window. This prevents a figure from being mistaken for something broader than it measures.
- Practice coverage: Which defined security activities and checks are in place for the relevant software and lifecycle stages?
- Evidence quality: Can the team show when checks ran, what they covered, and how failures, approvals, and exceptions were handled?
- Risk signals: What severity and exposure do identified issues represent, and what risks remain unresolved or accepted?
- Response and learning: Does the team review results and use security successes and failures to improve its SDLC?
These are useful organizing dimensions, not a NIST-mandated score or a universally validated formula. Interpret counts and rates alongside their scope and context. A raw finding count, scan count, or time-to-close figure alone can mislead: it may change because exposure, detection, severity, or workflow changed rather than because security improved or worsened. NIST’s SP 800-218 examples emphasize risk criteria and contextual analysis.
How do you make security checks part of development?
Turn each benchmark criterion into a workflow decision: when the check happens, what evidence is retained, who can approve an exception, and how unresolved issues are escalated. Add appropriate criteria to current code review, build, release, or definition-of-done processes rather than creating a parallel lifecycle.
OWASP advises that secure-development actions belong in the existing lifecycle; otherwise busy teams may set them aside. NIST likewise gives adding security criteria to existing checks and recording approvals, rejections, and exception requests in workflow systems as examples. See the OWASP Developer Guide and NIST’s SSDF practice examples.
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Make the result actionable
A benchmark check should lead to a clear next step: pass, remediation, review, or an explicitly approved exception. Keep the evidence with the work item or system that already governs the relevant activity. Give exceptions an owner and a revisit date so that a temporary risk decision does not become invisible or indefinite.
How can you compare teams fairly?
Prefer a team’s trend over time or comparisons among teams with sufficiently similar scope, definitions, evidence collection, and risk context. Before comparing results, examine these axes:
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- Risk, criticality, and exposure
- Practice coverage and the evidence supporting it
- Vulnerability severity and response or exception handling
- Implementation cost and feasibility
- Trend over a stated period, using consistent definitions
Explain material differences such as architecture, legacy burden, criticality, or coverage. State the denominator and time window for every rate. A higher finding count, for example, could reflect stronger detection or greater exposure; without context it is not a reliable ranking of team security.
NIST calls for analyzing data in the context of each project’s security successes and failures and using results to improve the SDLC. Its guidance does not define a universal cross-company ranking method or threshold. Treat comparisons as prompts for investigation and investment, not as a complete measure of security effectiveness.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should you keep the benchmark useful?
Review the baseline on a cadence that fits the organization’s delivery and risk decisions. At each review, use the evidence to decide what changes next:
- Which gaps carry the greatest risk?
- Did a measure change because security improved, or because coverage or detection changed?
- Does an exception need an owner or a revisit date?
- Should guidance, automation, training, or workflow change?
SSDF 1.1 was published by NIST on February 3, 2022. NIST’s SSDF project page notes that SP 800-218A, a profile for generative AI and dual-use foundation models, has been finalized; it augments the framework for that distinct context and does not by itself replace the general SSDF 1.1 publication. NIST also announced an initial Azure-based DevSecOps example on March 24, 2026, with additional example implementations expected to follow. Because that project material can change, consult the NIST announcement for its status and linked live guidance when using that example.
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