Shift Left Testing: Why Security Should Start on the Left

Test early and often “Larry Smith” The person who first introduced the concept of "shift left testing" in the Dobbs Journal back in 2001.

It is commonly said that prevention is better than cure, yet the secure-by-design approach is still given little consideration in software development. If this attitude does not change quickly, there will be more data breaches in the tech industry resulting in the loss of customer data and reputation, which could lead some companies to bankruptcy. It is important to remember that insecurity comes at a great expense.

It is imperative to design apps and platforms with a security mindset to minimize attacks from black hat hackers, as the consequences can be severe.

According to the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ), Software quality problems could have caused a loss of $2.41 trillion to the U.S. economy. This report proves why shifting left is the way to go in software development.

What is Shift-Left Testing?

Shift Left Testing is a software development approach that involves testing the code earlier in the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The objective of this approach is to detect and rectify any bugs or errors at an early stage by moving the testing process to the left side of the SDLC timeline.

The three main goals remain:

• to speed test
• to minimize of code bugs
• to improve code quality and software applications ready to market

Why Shift-Left Testing?

Because insecurity is expensive! With a secure-by-design approach from the early beginning of the software development phases, more bugs could be found and minimized to deliver high-quality software.

In the traditional SDLC approach, testing was delayed until the end, resulting in buggy software, market delays, and poor user experience.

Shift-left testing is currently the way to go. There is no longer time to neglect security. Building software is not enough - security is crucial to delivering world-class services.

in a nutshell, security is vital at each phase of the SDLC.

Key Benefits of Shift-Left Testing

During the development process, testing is performed earlier at each phase. This provides various key benefits:

• Reduce costs: The core principle of shift left testing is to test earlier and more often because insecurity is expensive
• Higher efficiency: increased in the SDLC process
• Higher quality: Bugs are detected earlier in the development process, ensuring high-quality software ready for delivery.
• Competitive advantage: Development teams can move fast, build, prove their credibility, and innovate by iterations.

Types of Shift-Left Testing

There are four types of shift-left testing that development and testing teams can work on based on their needs.

• Traditional shift left testing: The approach follows the V model an extension of the waterfall model in software development, and brings testing activities starting at each phase of the lifecycle.

  it is still used today in some companies, but as the world of tech changes, it has become less adopted as organizations have adopted more efficient approaches for testing.

  
  

• Incremental shift left testing: This approach is ideal for big and complex projects that use incremental and iterative development methods. It ensures that the code is secured step by step in the SDLC. Testing is carried out at each iteration and the end of the project, with the core principle of "early and often" in mind. This approach aims to catch any issues as early as possible to minimize the risk of problems down the line.

  
  

• Agile /DevOps shift left testing: Agile and DevOps principles are the main focus of this approach. It emphasizes continuous integration, continuous delivery, and testing. Testing is an integral part of the development process, carried out repeatedly and collaboratively by different teams. Collaboration is one of the core principles of DevOps.

  
  

• Model-based shift left testing: The approach utilizes models to generate test cases, data cases, and oracle tests in the early stages, resulting in the elimination of 45-65% of errors.

How to Implement Shift-Left Testing

Adopting shift-left testing can be challenging for some companies as it requires time to train teams in the new approach. However, it is a highly effective way to enhance software quality.

Where to begin?

• Involve all the stakeholders: Collaboration between managers, PMs, testers, and developers is crucial for the successful implementation of the approach.
• Automate your tests: Automated tests are essential for shift left testing. Automation allows for quick test execution, enabling earlier detection and resolution of bugs.
• Involve developers in testing: It’s paramount to involve developers in testing from the beginning, an excellent way for them to have a security mindset at each phase of the SDLC.
• Use CI/CD: The role of automation in the world of DevOps is crucial as it simplifies the process of building, testing, and deploying software. It provides an opportunity to implement shift left testing, which enables automatic testing at every stage of the development process.
• Measure your results: You can't improve what you don't measure, by measuring different challenges of several tests it’s possible to know precisely what works and what doesn’t, always measure your results!

A Tale of Shift-Left Testing

The mantra remains the same! “Test early and Often”, companies who invest their time in shift left, training developers, and involving all the stakeholders, innovate and make a difference with top-notch services, Among them are Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Linkedin …

Netflix has been considered a pioneer of shift left testing, with 238.39 million subscribers The platform remains the most used by cinephiles around the globe, users ’demands change all the time, and from their feedback such companies have to innovate to keep pace with different trends, retaining customers and generating more revenue.

With a traditional approach to testing Netflix had some issues in the past such as:

• High costs of testing
• Defects in production resulting in outages affecting some users
• a delayed time to market

By adopting the shift left approach, they were able to achieve significant improvements in their production. They reported a 50% decrease in defects, a 30% reduction in Time to Market (TTM) for new features, and a 20% reduction in testing costs.

Developers can gather feedback from users to improve code while satisfying demand, the challenge is to know how to shift left.

Shift Left Now

The world of software development is stressful when it comes to data breaches because of poor designs, an opportunity for black hat hackers to exploit anything they want, and a risk for companies to lose the trust of customers and investors, resulting in bankruptcy.

Insecurity is expensive, it’s time to foster shift left testing now not later!