Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Software engineering often follows a particular methodology. Throughout the software development industry, an increasing share of enterprises follow agile principles. However, engineering adequately secure software, even though required by some international standards, remains challenging. That is p...

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Main Authors: Anze Mihelic, Simon Vrhovec, Blaz Markelj, Tomaz Hovelja
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10788687/
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author Anze Mihelic
Simon Vrhovec
Blaz Markelj
Tomaz Hovelja
author_facet Anze Mihelic
Simon Vrhovec
Blaz Markelj
Tomaz Hovelja
author_sort Anze Mihelic
collection DOAJ
description Software engineering often follows a particular methodology. Throughout the software development industry, an increasing share of enterprises follow agile principles. However, engineering adequately secure software, even though required by some international standards, remains challenging. That is particularly true when enterprises use agile approaches. Additionally, existing agile, secure software engineering approaches proposed in the literature are poorly suited for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While some suggest permanently embedding security in agile, these solutions are rigid and often limited to specific methods like Scrum or Extreme Programming. This paper introduces a situational agile approach for secure software development, namely ATTRACT, which does not require a particular method to be used by the development team and is designed as a temporary add-on to the existing method. It takes a software development method used by an enterprise as is and builds on it. It is designed to incrementally enhance security knowledge and awareness within the development team; thus, it is especially suited for SMEs. The approach was tested in a real-world longitudinal multiple-case study. The results indicate that this approach enhanced security awareness, improved code quality, and encouraged tailored security implementations. Although results indicate an adaptation phase, teams generally found that the approach met their expectations.
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spelling doaj-art-9026debaf80944929dee3246714d34522025-08-20T01:58:19ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011218961118963510.1109/ACCESS.2024.351488910788687Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized BusinessesAnze Mihelic0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5925-4262Simon Vrhovec1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6951-6369Blaz Markelj2https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2951-8086Tomaz Hovelja3Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Ljubljana, SloveniaFaculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Ljubljana, SloveniaFaculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Ljubljana, SloveniaFaculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, SloveniaSoftware engineering often follows a particular methodology. Throughout the software development industry, an increasing share of enterprises follow agile principles. However, engineering adequately secure software, even though required by some international standards, remains challenging. That is particularly true when enterprises use agile approaches. Additionally, existing agile, secure software engineering approaches proposed in the literature are poorly suited for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While some suggest permanently embedding security in agile, these solutions are rigid and often limited to specific methods like Scrum or Extreme Programming. This paper introduces a situational agile approach for secure software development, namely ATTRACT, which does not require a particular method to be used by the development team and is designed as a temporary add-on to the existing method. It takes a software development method used by an enterprise as is and builds on it. It is designed to incrementally enhance security knowledge and awareness within the development team; thus, it is especially suited for SMEs. The approach was tested in a real-world longitudinal multiple-case study. The results indicate that this approach enhanced security awareness, improved code quality, and encouraged tailored security implementations. Although results indicate an adaptation phase, teams generally found that the approach met their expectations.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10788687/Software securitysecure software engineering (SSE)engineering of secure software (ESS)leansoftware development management
spellingShingle Anze Mihelic
Simon Vrhovec
Blaz Markelj
Tomaz Hovelja
Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
IEEE Access
Software security
secure software engineering (SSE)
engineering of secure software (ESS)
lean
software development management
title Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
title_full Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
title_fullStr Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
title_full_unstemmed Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
title_short Delegation-Based Agile Secure Software Development Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
title_sort delegation based agile secure software development approach for small and medium sized businesses
topic Software security
secure software engineering (SSE)
engineering of secure software (ESS)
lean
software development management
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10788687/
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AT simonvrhovec delegationbasedagilesecuresoftwaredevelopmentapproachforsmallandmediumsizedbusinesses
AT blazmarkelj delegationbasedagilesecuresoftwaredevelopmentapproachforsmallandmediumsizedbusinesses
AT tomazhovelja delegationbasedagilesecuresoftwaredevelopmentapproachforsmallandmediumsizedbusinesses