Auditing the coverage of software quality & security & compliance requirements throughout the software development life cycle: A holistic approach

Abstract

In recent years, due to the widespread adoption of Agile and DevSecOps approaches to software development, the increasing number of abuses and malicious actions targeting information technology-based resources and the accelerating need for software applications to adhere compliance requirements with certain standards, policies and regulations (e.g., the European Union Cyber Resilience Act or industry standards HIPAA and GDPR), the guarantee of all three – quality, the level of security and com-pliance for the needs of developing and delivering software solutions has become of significant importance. The paper presents a holistic approach to automated monitoring of software quality, security, and compliance, which has been researched and developed for the needs of one of the most growing industries, namely the FinTech industry. It introduces SDLC Auditor, a software tool designed to automatically monitor, control, and evaluate processes throughout the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) within Agile environments with regard to adherence to software quality, security, and compliance requirements. The study concludes by highlighting the advantages of the SDLC Auditor in developing stable, secure, and reliable software systems.