Shift Left, Measure Right: Assessing the Efficacy of Application Security in the Age of CI/CD

This piece outlines how DevSecOps teams can improve application security by integrating security early and continuously as applications evolve, rather than relying solely on shift-left practices. It explains the complementary roles and blind spots of SCA, SAST, and DAST, and argues that success should be measured by risk reduction and prioritization rather than vulnerability counts or remediation speed. The article recommends moving beyond DORA metrics to adopt application security metrics that assess coverage and gaps across the CI/CD pipeline from pre-production through production.