If you are about to hire an app development agency, security cannot be a footnote. It needs to sit at the center of your brief, your questions, and your contract. DevSecOps blends development, security, and operations into one practice. When an agency truly lives it, you will see fewer fire drills, faster fixes, and a product that can earn trust. When an agency only markets it, you will feel it in patchy documentation, late vulnerability discoveries, and vague answers. This guide gives you five non negotiables that separate signal from noise when you vet a partner. In this article, we’ll explore the DevSecOps done right, the top 5 non-negotiables for vetting your app development agency security.
Why Devsecops Standards Matter Before You Sign
Security is not something you bolt on after launch. Modern stacks change often. New code ships weekly. Third party services evolve. Attackers adapt. A solid DevSecOps program bakes security into every stage. That means automated checks as code moves forward, people who know how to respond, and clear accountability. When your agency gets this right, you cut risk and keep speed. When they do not, you inherit hidden liabilities.
Non Negotiable 1: Security Testing That Runs On Every Change
Ask exactly how the agency tests code at each step. You are looking for a pipeline where security checks run by default and block unsafe releases.
What to verify
Static analysis catches insecure patterns before code runs. Dynamic testing probes the running app for exploitable behavior. Dependency scans flag known vulnerabilities in libraries. Container scans inspect images before they reach production. The agency should show you pipeline snapshots and recent reports, not only slides.
Red flags to watch – DevSecOps Non-Negotiables Vetting App Development Agency Security
Security runs only before release rather than on every pull request. Reports arrive as PDFs without ticket links or owners. Failed checks get overridden without a written reason.
Non Negotiable 2: Production Access With Least Privilege And Audit Trails
People will need access to servers, databases, and dashboards. The question is how much and how long. Strong agencies enforce least privilege and short lived credentials. They use role based access, require multi factor authentication, and record every sensitive action.
What to verify
Walk through a fresh access request. Who approves it. How long does the credential last. How are secrets stored. The agency should be able to rotate keys on demand and show you audit logs. For mobile apps and APIs, ask how they safeguard tokens and who can view them.
Red flags to watch
Shared admin accounts. Credentials stored in chat. Production data pulled into laptops for convenience. No way to answer who did what and when.
DevSecOps Non-Negotiables Vetting App Development Agency Security 3: Proven Incident Response With Measured Recovery
Incidents will happen. The difference is whether the team recognizes signals early, contains damage, and restores normal operations quickly. This is both a plan and a muscle you build.
What to verify
Ask for the incident response plan. Look for clear severities, on call roles, internal and external notification paths, and a postmortem template. Ask about the last two real incidents. What triggered detection. How long to contain. What changed afterward. Backups and restore drills belong in this conversation too. Recovery time and recovery point targets should be known and tested.
Red flags to watch
Plans that live in someone’s head. No runbooks. So, no metric for mean time to detect or recover. No evidence of restore tests.
DevSecOps Non-Negotiables Vetting App Development Agency Security 4: Secure Build And Delivery With Reproducible Artifacts
Supply chain risks are real. You need confidence that the artifact you approve is the artifact that runs in production. That calls for controlled builds, signed artifacts, and protected pipelines.
What to verify
The agency should build in isolated runners and sign artifacts. Dependencies should be pinned and scanned. Container images must come from known base images. Deployment should be automated with approvals and traceable change sets. You need a bill of materials for the software you ship. When a vulnerability appears, you can then locate and patch it fast.
Red flags to watch DevSecOps Non-Negotiables Vetting App Development Agency Security
Manual builds on developer laptops. Unpinned dependencies. No signature on images. Releases made through a dashboard click with no audit trail.
Non Negotiable 5: Privacy By Design With Data Minimization
Security bleeds into privacy. Ask how the design reduces the amount of sensitive data collected and stored. The less you keep, the smaller the blast radius.
What to verify
Walk through data flows from collection to deletion. Confirm encryption in transit and at rest. Check how secrets are masked in logs. Ensure role based views hide personal data from people who do not need it. If analytics are used, confirm consent and retention rules. Ask for a data inventory and a mapping of processors and sub processors.
Red flags to watch
Open ended logging of personal data. Broad database access for convenience. No documented retention schedule. Analytics that ignore consent.
The Questions You Should Ask In Every Pitch
Who owns security at the agency and on our project.
Which security checks run on every pull request and who triages findings.
How do you manage secrets and rotate them.
What is your incident response plan and how often do you drill it.
How do you prove the artifact in production matches the one we approved.
How do you minimize and protect personal data.
What metrics do you track to show this is working.
Keep questions open ended. Ask for proof. You want to see actual screenshots, example tickets, and sample reports.
The Minimum Evidence You Need In The Contract
Add security expectations to the statement of work. Define the pipeline checks and severity thresholds that block releases. Require signed artifacts and a software bill of materials. Demand access to audit logs upon request. Set incident response timelines and notification duties. Include backup and restore testing cadence. Note which third party services will be used and how they are vetted. Add a right to test through periodic penetration tests or coordinated scans.
A Practical Vetting Table You Can Use With Agencies
| Area | What Good Looks Like | Proof To Request | Questions To Ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipeline Security | Static, dynamic, dependency, and container scans run on each pull request, fail builds on high severity issues | Recent pipeline run with failed finding and linked ticket | Which checks block merges. How are false positives handled |
| Access Control | Role based access, multi factor authentication, short lived credentials, centralized secrets | Access policy, example approval in ticketing system, secrets manager screenshot | How long do temporary credentials last. How do you audit usage |
| Incident Response | Documented severities, on call rotations, notification playbooks, postmortems with actions | Redacted incident report, postmortem with follow ups, restore drill result | What was your last incident. Time to detect and recover |
| Supply Chain | Reproducible builds, signed artifacts, pinned and scanned dependencies, change approvals | Signed container image digest, SBOM sample, dependency scan report | How do you verify an artifact before deploy. Which base images do you allow |
| Privacy And Data | Data minimization, masked logs, encryption in transit and at rest, retention policy | Data flow diagram, logging config with redaction, retention schedule | Which personal data do you collect. How do you delete it on request |
Copy this table into your internal checklist. Ask each agency to fill it and attach evidence. The exercise alone reveals maturity.
How To Balance Security With Delivery Speed for DevSecOps
Security and velocity can work together when you treat checks as part of the developer experience. Good agencies tune scanners to reduce noise. They put clear remediation steps in the ticket. They pair automation with human reviews, not in place of them. Moreover, document secure defaults for frameworks and libraries so developers do not make the same choice twice. They teach engineers to threat model features as they plan them so issues never reach code.
Build A Culture Of Useful Postmortems
When incidents happen, your partner should respond without blame. Clear timelines, facts, and actions matter. The best postmortems turn into stronger runbooks, better alerts, and code changes that remove whole classes of failure. Ask how learnings are shared across teams. If the agency treats postmortems as compliance rather than growth, you will repeat the same mistakes.
Budgeting For Security Without Guesswork
Ask for a security line in the proposal rather than a vague promise. You want to see time for tuning scans, writing runbooks, running restore drills, and closing findings. If you plan a penetration test, schedule it ahead of a major release. Treat it as feedback to improve the program, not a binding grade. When you budget for secure foundations, you pay less later to clean up rushed choices.
Your Next Steps
Pick three agencies and send them your checklist. Ask for a one hour technical walk through with their DevSecOps lead. Bring your engineering leader to the call. Listen for specifics, not slogans. Choose the partner that can show their work, not only talk about it. Then write those expectations into your contract and ask for a monthly security report you can share with your own stakeholders.
DevSecOps Frequently Asked Questions
Do Small Projects Need This Level Of Rigor
Yes. Attackers do not filter by budget. Start with the basics. Automated scans on every change. Least privilege access. Regular backups and restore tests.
How Often Should We Run Penetration Tests
Schedule a pen test before major releases and at least annually. Treat findings as inputs to improve the pipeline and the codebase.
Can We Outsource Everything Security Related
You can outsource execution, not accountability. Keep ownership of risk decisions, privacy policies, and incident communications.
What If An Agency Fails A Security Check During The Project
Make remediation a contractual requirement with timelines. If fixes stall, pause new feature work until risk goes down.
How Do We Show Progress To Non Technical Stakeholders
Use a simple scorecard. Open vulnerabilities by severity, days to resolve, last restore drill date, and incident counts with time to detect and recover. Share trends, not only snapshots.
