How Can Security Testing Fit Within Agile Development?

As software developers and associated business analysts increasingly focus on satisfying customer needs by providing them with a better-quality product, they are consequently moving towards an agile mindset. 

Firms are changing the way they function to allow customer needs to be integrated not only into the final product and stages of sales but also throughout the product development process. This way, each process step adds to customer satisfaction and doesn’t pressure the sales and marketing team to force their product down the customer’s throat.

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Agile, as we talked about, is a collection of beliefs that teams can use to make decisions about how to develop software. The meaning of being Agile is subject to distortion as it is passed along.

However, if you try to understand the true meaning of being Agile, it’s surprisingly flexible. Agile doesn’t make decisions for you. Instead, it gives a foundation for teams to make decisions that result in better software development. About 78% of the firms claim to be inclined towards an Agile principled approach.

What is security testing?

Application Security Testing (AST) is a comprehensive process of identifying the security loopholes and shortcomings of an application that it may encounter in regular functioning or that a hacker may exploit.

AST was carried out manually on its inception. However, with the increasing complexities of applications and the variety of functions being integrated, manual testing is extremely time-consuming. With AST now fully automated, most organizations use a combination of several application security tools.

Why legacy AST solutions don’t work with modern app development

The legacy solutions for AST don’t fit into the agile software development paradigm. Mostly, this is because traditional solutions assume that a heavyweight explicit testing phase is in place. This phase could take hours or days, even weeks, depending on the application and the tool being used, before any meaningful and valuable feedback was provided back and taken action. The reasons for that are multifold:

Research has shown only a small subset of the CI-CD pipeline has effectively embedded security testing in line with continuous practice.

What is Agile testing?

As the complexity of the software development process increases continuously, software testing approaches need to evolve to keep up with the development approaches. Agile testing is a new-age approach that focuses on smarter solutions rather than requiring a lot of effort yet delivers high-quality products.

Principles of Agile testing:

• Testing is continuous – To ensure continuous progress of the product
• The whole team performs the test – Not only the test team but also developers and business analysts test the product.
• Simplified code – All defects raised by the agile team are fixed within the same iteration to keep the code clean and simplified
• Continuous feedback – To meet business needs and satisfy customer requirements
• Decreased time of feedback response – The business team involved in each iteration of agile testing and continuous feedback shortens the time of response.
• Less Documentation – Using a reusable checklist, the agile team focuses on tests instead of incidental details.
• Test-driven – Testing is performed at the time of implementation

Advantages of Agile security testing

There are many benefits of having a structured integrated approach to a process like security testing. When we come to list them we realise the true strength of Agile.

1) It saves time and money – as we learn about problems at earlier stages.

2) It reduces documentation.

3) It is highly flexible and adaptable to changes. 

4) High customer satisfaction – due to regular feedback.

5) Better determination of issues through daily meetings.

Agile testing methods

There exists a plethora of methods by which a company can adopt agile principles into its functioning. Most of them might come under the umbrella of the ones listed below. This does not imply that newer ways cannot be created or prove efficient. All organizations are different, so a different approach would suit them. Having that said, the most essential Agile Security Testing methodologies are:

1) Behaviour Driven Development (BDD)

BDD improves communication among project stakeholders so all members understand each feature correctly before the development process starts. The developers, testers, and business analysts communicate continuously using examples, which are called scenarios and written in a special format.

Scenarios hold information on how a given feature should behave in different situations with different input parameters. These are called executable specifications, comprising both specifications and inputs to the automated tests.

2) Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)

ATDD focuses on involving team members with different perspectives such as the customer, developer and tester. The three meet to formulate acceptance tests incorporating perspectives of customer development and testing. The customer is focused on the problem that is to be solved. The development team is focused on how the problem is to be solved. 

The testing team is focused on what could go wrong. Acceptance tests represent the user's point of view and describe how the system will function. They also help verify that the system functions as it is supposed to. In some instances, acceptance tests are automated.

3) Exploratory testing

In this type of testing, the test design and test execution phases go hand in hand. Exploratory testing emphasizes working software over comprehensive documentation. Individuals and interactions are more important than the process and tools. Customer collaboration holds greater value than contract negotiations.

Exploratory testing is also more adaptable to changes. Testers identify an application's functionality by exploring it and then learning it to design and execute test plans.

Conclusion

Security Testing is going through a major shift in gears as it transitions into the agile environment. This change might seem a small one because the end purpose being served is similar. However, in the long run of a project, the integration of all three teams involved in a security testing project will help improve client satisfaction and a better reputation. The sooner a firm recognizes, understands, and implements Agile principles, the better results they will fetch.