What is Shift Left?

Overview

Effects of Shift Left on DevOps

“Shift Left” is a foundational concept emphasizing proactive integration of quality assurance and security measures early in the software development lifecycle. By moving curation, testing, and security assessments to earlier stages, teams can identify and address issues sooner, reducing costs and time associated with fixing defects later in the process. This method enhances collaboration across development, operations, and security teams, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for product quality and security.

Effects of Shift Left on Development

Incorporating the shift left methodology enhances collaboration among developers, testers, and operations, as it encourages continuous communication and feedback throughout the development process. Techniques such as automated testing, static code analysis, and regular code reviews allow for immediate detection and resolution of issues, thereby accelerating the release cycle without sacrificing quality. Ultimately, shift left not only improves the overall effectiveness of the development process but also contributes to enhancing security, while building more robust and reliable software.

Benefits of Shift Left

Improved Software Quality

This early involvement of security and QA teams encourages developers to adopt coding standards and best practices from the outset, reducing the number of bugs but also resulting in cleaner, more maintainable code. Continuous scanning of source code and binaries for both homegrown and third-party open source code ensures that potential vulnerabilities are detected and remediated as early as possible in the development process. This leads to higher-quality software that meets user expectations and reduces the likelihood of post-launch failures and security breaches.

Reduced Costs and Time-to-Market

Early testing and security assessments promote faster iterations, enabling teams to deliver features more efficiently with shortened development cycles. This enables organizations to respond to market demand and user feedback more swiftly, resulting in a product ready for release sooner, with a greater chance of success due to better alignment with real user requirements.

Enhanced Collaboration and Communication

Involving development, operations, and security teams from the beginning of the development cycle,  enables the process to become more integrative, creating a shared sense of ownership and accountability for quality and security across the entire team. It also opens a dialogue, where team members can share insights and provide feedback that enhances the development process. This results in working more efficiently, breaking down silos, and ensuring that everyone is aligned to ensure quality secure software releases.

Understanding Shift Left Testing

Description

Shift Left Testing is an approach that integrates testing processes earlier in the software development lifecycle (SDLC). The core philosophy behind this methodology is to identify and rectify defects as soon as possible, moving testing activities from the end of the development process to the initial phases. By doing so, teams can proactively manage quality, ensure that requirements are understood and met, and reduce the time and cost of fixing issues after deployment.

Testing Types

Various types of testing and security scanning can occur at different stages of the development process. Some common testing types associated with this approach include:

1. Unit Testing: Conducted by developers to validate individual components or modules of the code as they are written, ensuring they function correctly.
2. Integration Testing: Focuses on verifying the interactions between different modules or services after unit testing, ensuring that they work together seamlessly.
3. Static Testing: Involves reviewing code and design documents without executing the code, allowing teams to catch potential issues early through practices such as code reviews and static code analysis.
4. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Testing: Engages both developers and non-technical stakeholders by writing specifications in natural language to ensure that the development aligns with business requirements.

These tests when applied at the outset of the SDLC, contribute significantly to the overall quality and security of the release.

Examples

Several practical examples illustrate the application of Shift Left Testing in real-world scenarios. For instance, a development team might implement automated unit tests in their CI/CD pipeline, allowing tests to run automatically every time new code is committed. This immediate feedback loop enables developers to quickly identify and address issues before they progress further down the pipeline. 

Another example is static code analysis tools, which scan code for potential vulnerabilities and coding standards violations before the execution phase. This helps to mitigate security risks early in the development process. Furthermore, a team practicing BDD might involve business analysts and stakeholders in writing acceptance criteria before development begins, ensuring that the software not only meets technical specifications but also aligns with user expectations from the start. Collectively, these examples highlight how Shift Left Testing can significantly improve the software development process by embedding quality assurance throughout.

Implementing Shift Left

Keys to Adopting Shift Left Practices

Implementing a Shift Left approach in software application security begins with fostering a security-first mindset across the development team from the earliest phases of the project. The initial step involves educating team members on security best practices and ensuring that security considerations are integrated into every part of the development lifecycle, from planning and design to coding and testing. This can include conducting threat modeling sessions to identify potential vulnerabilities at the design stage and incorporating security requirements into user stories.

Tools and Technologies for Shift Left

To effectively implement a Shift Left approach for application security, teams can leverage various tools and technologies to facilitate early detection and remediation of vulnerabilities. For instance, Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools can be integrated into the development environment to analyze code in real-time and flag security vulnerabilities as developers write code. 

Similarly, Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools can help teams identify and manage security risks posed by third-party libraries and dependencies. Additionally, incorporating automated testing frameworks for security into CI/CD pipelines ensures that security checks are executed consistently with code changes, and tools like Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) can be utilized later in the development cycle to identify runtime issues before deployment.

Common Challenges to Overcome Them

Known challenges may include:

• Resistance to change among team members
• Integration of security tools into existing workflows
• Navigating the complexity of security requirements

To overcome these hurdles, organizations should prioritize leadership buy-in and cultivate a culture of collaboration between development and security teams. Providing adequate training and support for developers on using security tools can alleviate integration challenges while establishing clear guidelines and examples of best practices can help demystify security requirements.

Practical Applications of Shift Left

Shift Left in a Microservices Architecture

In a microservices architecture, the Shift Left approach is particularly advantageous due to the decentralized and modular nature of the development process. By integrating security and testing early within each microservice, teams can address potential vulnerabilities or performance bottlenecks before they propagate across services. The independent deployment capabilities of microservices allow developers to implement continuous security practices without the risk of affecting the entire system.

Shift Left in Agile Development

Shift Left is inherently compatible with Agile development methodologies, where short iterations and frequent feedback are key components. In Agile environments, teams can integrate testing, quality assurance, and security practices throughout each sprint, ensuring that these considerations are woven into the development process from the start. This alignment allows teams to conduct regular code reviews, automated testing, and user acceptance testing during each iteration, which helps identify and address issues early on.

Leveraging Knowledge Management for Effective Shift Left

Effective knowledge management is vital for the successful implementation of a Shift Left strategy, as it facilitates the sharing and retention of best practices, findings, and security lessons learned across the organization. By creating a centralized repository for documentation, tool usage, and case studies, teams can benefit from collective experiences and insights that inform their development and testing processes. Training sessions, workshops, and regular retrospectives can help reinforce a security-first mindset while encouraging team members to contribute to the knowledge base.

Best Practices for Shifting Left

Culture and Collaboration 

Creating a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility for security is fundamental to successfully implementing a Shift Left approach. This begins with fostering open communication between development, operations, and security teams, encouraging all parties to work together throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Regular cross-functional meetings, workshops, and training sessions can help break down silos and create a unified vision around security as a shared goal. 

Automated Security Integration

Automated security integration is critical for shifting left effectively. By embedding security tools within the software development pipeline, teams can conduct security checks in real-time as code is written and deployed. Tools such as Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) can provide immediate feedback, allowing developers to address vulnerabilities early before they escalate into more significant issues.

Vulnerability Management

Effective vulnerability management is essential, as it helps teams continuously identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks throughout the development process. Organizations should adopt a proactive approach by conducting regular vulnerability assessments and threat modeling sessions during the design and development phases. Additionally, maintaining a centralized repository for tracking known vulnerabilities and establishing standardized processes for prioritizing and resolving these issues ensures that security concerns are addressed systematically.

Design and Planning

During the design and planning stages, teams should perform threat modeling to identify potential security vulnerabilities early on and assess the impact and likelihood of various threats. Establishing security requirements and guidelines as part of the architecture and design documentation ensures that security is baked into the product from the outset. Involving security experts in these phases allows for the identification of potential pitfalls, enabling developers to make informed choices about technologies, frameworks, and the tools required to enhance security and improve overall security posture.

Monitoring and Response

Following a Shift Left approach entails implementing continuous monitoring strategies to detect vulnerabilities and security incidents as they arise in deployed applications. This can involve using runtime application self-protection (RASP) tools and security information and event management (SIEM) systems to gather and analyze data in real-time. Additionally, establishing an incident response plan ensures that teams can respond quickly and effectively to mitigate the impact of any exposure. 

Shift Left and the Jfrog Platform

The Frog Platform takes ‘shift left’ from an approach to implementation by integrating security scans and testing as early as possible in the development lifecycle, reducing the likelihood of introducing vulnerabilities into your development environment. Representing the leftmost edge, software developers drive shift-left security through secure coding practices preventing insecure code from getting compiled into a software binary.

The deployment of the JFrog Platform with JFrog Artifactory,  JFrog Xray, JFrog Advanced Security, and JFrog Curation results in a minimized attack surface by preventing vulnerabilities early on. Adopting JFrog’s suite of integrated application security tools helps eliminate exposures in your application software such as vulnerable OSS dependencies, risky coding practices, bad configurations, and authentication weaknesses. Finding and fixing quality and security issues early in the process also reduces the costs and complications associated with remediation.

Continue to explore more about security using the links below, or see the platform in action by taking an online tour, scheduling a guided demo, or starting a free trial at your convenience.