An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Software Security Skills, Usage and Training Needs in Agile Settings

Abstract

Organizations recognize that protecting their assets against attacks is an important business. However, achieving what is adequate security requires taking bold steps to address security practices within the organization. In the Agile software development world, security engineering process is unacceptable as it runs counter to the agile values. Agile teams have thus approached software security activities in their own way. To improve security within agile settings requires that management understands the current practices of software security activities within their agile teams. In this study, we use survey to investigate software security usage, competence, and training needs in two agile organizations. We find that (1) The two organizations perform differently in core software security activities but are similar when activities that could be leveraged for security are considered (2) regardless of cost or benefit, skill drives the kind of activities that are performed (3) Secure design is expressed as the most important training need by all groups in both organizations (4) Effective software security adoption in agile setting is not automatic, it requires a driver.