Measuring AppSec success: Key KPIs that demonstrate value

In the software development industry, proactively securing the software development life cycle (SDLC) from cyber threats must always be a top priority. Taking a shift left approach addresses security early on so your development teams can spend more time innovating and less on dealing with vulnerabilities. But that’s just the beginning. 

AppSec teams must also show CISOs and other executives that the AppSec program is working as intended while providing business value. Thus, it’s important to provide visibility into how AppSec investments are reducing risk and helping the company reach its business objectives. However, demonstrating AppSec success doesn’t happen overnight. For one, you have to identify and collect the right KPIs and metrics that will help executives and stakeholders get a clear picture of how the program works. Then, you must translate these metrics into a narrative that resonates with the intended audience. 

In this guide, we will reveal how you can properly measure and convey the success of your AppSec program so your decision-makers and managers understand that the investment in this area continues to pay dividends.   

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for AppSec programs 

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure” is a common business adage that says you need data to show if something is working. And it certainly holds true for AppSec, where quantifiable metrics can measure the effectiveness of security measures and identify areas for improvement. Four important categories of KPIs you should focus on include:

1. Risk reduction metrics

2. Team coverage and engagement

3. Application security posture trends

4. Vulnerability management efficiency

Risk reduction metrics

Risk reduction metrics show how your organization is mitigating the potential impact of security threats. Popular risk reduction metrics include:

• Number of critical vulnerabilities: Tracks the number of critical vulnerabilities over time. 

  • A successful AppSec program will show a decreasing trend, indicating the organization is experiencing fewer high-risk threats.

• Vulnerability remediation rate: Measures the rate at which vulnerabilities are addressed during a specified time period.

  • For example, if 120 vulnerabilities are discovered and 60 fixed in a given month, then the monthly vulnerability remediation rate is 50%. 

• Percentage of high-risk applications: Measures the percentage of applications that are either sensitive or critical to business functions. 

  •  Knowing this helps determine how to prioritize vulnerability efforts, preferably by addressing threats to high-risk applications first.

• Security debt: Tracks unresolved security issues that accumulate over time. 

  • The longer security issues remain unfixed, the greater the potential for security breaches or exploits. Tracking this debt helps illustrate your organization’s overall security posture. 

Team coverage and engagement

No AppSec team is an island, and effective threat reduction means engaging with cross-functional teams to get their participation in leveling up your organization’s security. Measuring the level of participation and engagement across different teams will help demonstrate AppSec success. Useful metrics include: 

• Percentage of applications covered by security testing: Tracks the proportion of applications that have undergone security assessments.

  • Higher is better as it suggests fewer potential gaps in coverage.

• Developer security training completion: Measures how many developers have undergone security training. 

  • Developers who complete security training are better positioned to adopt secure coding practices, fortifying their work against cyber threats.  

• Security findings per application: Tracks the number of vulnerabilities identified per application. 

  • Interpreting this metric can take some effort since a high number can indicate thorough testing, while also revealing that developers may not be using secure coding practices.

• Mean time to security involvement (MTSI): Measures how early in the development lifecycle security teams are engaged. 

  • Bringing security teams earlier into the development process helps identify and fix vulnerabilities before they can cause problems. 

Application security posture trends

If your AppSec program is working as intended, then trends should move in a favorable direction over time. But the only way to know this is by tracking specific metrics to gauge your security health. These metrics may include:

• Number of open vulnerabilities: Tracks how well AppSec is keeping pace with resolving security issues.  

  • You want this trend line to slope downward, indicating fewer open vulnerabilities over time. 

• Vulnerability recurrence rate: Measures how often the same vulnerabilities reappear in applications. 

  • If you’re experiencing a high recurrence rate, then that suggests the need for better developer security practices or stricter testing processes to avoid having to address the same problems over and over again. 

• Percentage of applications without known vulnerabilities: Reflects how well your organization avoids vulnerabilities from appearing in applications. 

  • A high percentage is better, but don’t let it lull you into a false sense of security since the absence of known vulnerabilities doesn’t account for unknown or undiscovered threats. 

• Security patch application rate: Measures how quickly an organization applies security patches. 

  • A high application rate indicates your organization proactively addresses vulnerabilities, thereby reducing exposure to security risks.

Vulnerability management efficiency

This category focuses on how efficient your organization is at finding and remediating vulnerabilities. Greater efficiency boosts productivity by reducing the time developers spend on fixing security issues, allowing them to concentrate on creating better software. Important metrics in this category include:

• Mean-time-to-detect (MTTD): Measures the average time it takes to detect a vulnerability from the moment it appears. 

  • Lower detection times show your approach is effective at catching issues early.

• Mean-time-to-remediate (MTTR): Measures the average time it takes to fix a vulnerability once it’s detected. 

  • Faster trending remediation times demonstrate you’ve developed an efficient vulnerability management process, while slower trending times indicate that you should refine your process. 

• Percentage of vulnerabilities addressed by severity: Measures how well your organization prioritizes vulnerabilities based on their severity (e.g., critical, high, medium). 

  • A well-optimized vulnerability management program is one where higher severity vulnerabilities are addressed first.

• False positive rate: Represents the percentage of reported vulnerabilities that are not genuine threats.

  • A high false positive rate means your teams are wasting valuable time and effort investigating and remediating non-existent vulnerabilities. If this is the case, you may need to invest in better testing solutions (e.g., SCA and SAST tools) and refine your security processes.

Demonstrating ROI to executive stakeholders

For some teams, getting started with metrics collection is easy. The hard part is then presenting the figures and your AppSec success story to executives and stakeholders so they fully understand the program's value. Doing so requires thoughtful translation and crafting a narrative that reveals how AppSec is helping the organization achieve its primary business objectives.  

Translate technical metrics into business value 

What is on the mind of most executives? Usually, it’s the bottom line, staying on schedule, risk management, and ensuring the organization’s offerings lead to business success. Bombarding these decision-makers with numbers without context isn’t the best way to capture their attention. Instead, try showing them the financial impact of risk reduction. Also, calculate how much the organization is saving in breach-related costs by reducing the number of critical vulnerabilities.

Executives want to know how security efforts help improve operational efficiency. Highlight exactly how much time your AppSec initiative saves by reducing development rework, allowing for faster time to market. Since compliance is an unavoidable part of the business journey, demonstrating how AppSec helps the organization comply with relevant regulations (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, etc.) will further underscore the business value of security.

Craft compelling narratives around AppSec success 

Your AppSec team may be good at catching issues and tallying vulnerabilities, but you’ll need to apply effective storytelling techniques to communicate the value of your program. Start by focusing on outcomes. Instead of simply presenting the number of security tests you’ve conducted, discuss how conducting that number of tests identified vulnerabilities and prevented security breaches or helped in meeting product launch timelines. 

Case studies are also great for illustrating successes and showing, for example, how timely remediating vulnerabilities helped the business avoid a real-world incident that impacted other industry players. Charts, graphs, and visual aids can go a long way in getting your points across, particularly when pointing to favorable trends like a reduction in MTTR. Finally, always tie in how AppSec supports the organization in driving revenue, protecting the brand, and building customer trust. 

Create your AppSec success story with ASPM

Application security posture management (ASPM) is designed to support successful AppSec programs by providing comprehensive visibility into the application environment, aggregating relevant metrics, and leveraging automation to manage vulnerabilities. Learn more by downloading the Snyk and Accenture white paper Empower Developers, Reduce Risk: How ASPM Unlocks DevSecOps. 

We believe ASPM helps organizations effectively manage the myriad challenges they face regarding application security. Snyk AppRisk is a developer-first ASPM tool that empowers AppSec teams with the visibility, context, and control they need to improve security health. Book a demo to discover how Snyk AppRisk can drive risk reduction in record time.