Achieving DevSecOps Maturity: Turning Secure Code into ROI

Achieving DevSecOps Maturity: Turning Secure Code into ROI

Imagine slashing critical vulnerabilities by double digits in just a few months—freeing up your developers to focus on new features instead of fire drills. This doesn’t have to be a lofty aspiration. It’s exactly what a well-executed DevSecOps maturity model can deliver.

For savvy VPs of Engineering and Heads of AppSec, investing in this framework isn’t just another compliance checkbox. Embedding security into your DevSecOps culture is a strategic lever: it speeds up development, ensures predictable and secure code, and ultimately proves tangible ROI.

But how do you actually get there? Below, we share key perspectives on bridging the Dev-Sec divide and then introduce one simple way to jumpstart (or accelerate) your journey. If you’re looking to level up your DevSecOps maturity, these insights will help guide your next steps.
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The Human Element: Bridging the Dev-Sec Divide

At its core, achieving an ideal DevSecOps culture is a people challenge. Developers want speed, functionality, and minimal friction, while security teams prioritize risk reduction and regulatory compliance. Immersive AppSec SME, Chris Wood, captures this tension, saying, “Developers build the world while cyber pros protect it—sometimes at the cost of a few fires.” The key is to align those mindsets so security becomes a shared victory rather than a perceived roadblock.

Wood recommends leaning into what brings the two sides together:

• A shared adversary: vulnerabilities
• A problem-solving mindset
• A focus on outcomes and efficiency
• A reliance on data to drive decisions

A DevSecOps maturity model grounded in these shared traits allows you to effectively design or continuously improve your strategy, leveraging implementation tactics that resonate across personas. Instead of enforcing top-down mandates, you can foster a developer-led Security Champion Program—one grounded in genuine collaboration and mutual learning. When developers see how security practices help them ship code faster and with fewer headaches, they become natural allies rather than reluctant participants.
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Moving from Insight to Action: Put Assessment First

Before plotting your DevSecOps roadmap, you need a clear, objective snapshot of where you stand today. That’s where an internal benchmark assessment process comes into play. By assembling a cross-functional team of “hand-raisers” (those who are already bullish about security) to manage it—you can systematically evaluate four interrelated pillars across teams:

1. People: How deeply has a security-first mindset taken root?
2. Processes: Which workflows enable speed, and which create bottlenecks?
3. Training: Are secure coding lessons translating into measurable behavior change?
4. Tools: Do your security tools integrate seamlessly, or do they overwhelm developers with noise?

Mapping your current state across these dimensions reveals both strengths and blind spots. That clarity, in turn, helps you prioritize initiatives—whether injecting more practical, hands-on training, automating manual steps, or sunsetting underperforming tools—so you can measure progress at each milestone.
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Benchmark Your DevSecOps Maturity: What to Look For

Grounded in customer insights and industry best practices, the Immersive AppSec team developed a simple DevSecOps maturity assessment worksheet to help leaders benchmark their maturity. It’s designed to walk you through each pillar—helping your cross-functional team understand where you are on your journey, prioritize initiatives, measure progress, and chart a fast track to secure, high-velocity software delivery.

Specifically, users find it helps them: unpack team mindset and engagement; understand where there is workflow friction; identify how impactful any existing training may be for embedding security into daily work (versus purely ticking the compliance box); and capture how well their integrated tools support effective and efficient vulnerability remediation. By using the worksheet to deep dive into your organization’s practical realities, you’ll identify strengths to build on and blind spots to address.
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Final Thought

A well-defined DevSecOps maturity model doesn’t just appeal to regulators—it can transform operations in tangible ways so you get faster, more predictable releases. By benchmarking where you are, you can build or refine a strategy that addresses team dynamics, embeds best practices, and aligns tools and customized training. With the right perspective and a cohesive approach, you’ll be surprised how quickly you see real change.

Ready to benchmark your team’s maturity? Use our DevSecOps Maturity Benchmark Assessment tool.

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