How Controls Keep Software Development Fast & Secure

When Everything Is Moving Fast, Who’s Keeping Watch?

A late-night deployment. A seemingly harmless configuration change. A new feature pushed live without full test coverage.

At first, everything seems fine—until it isn’t. The next morning, users report issues, support tickets pile up, and engineers scramble to identify the root cause. The culprit? A minor, untested change that introduced an unexpected failure.

This is the reality of modern software development. While speed and agility are critical, they must be balanced with effective controls—structured safeguards designed to reduce risk, maintain reliability, and ensure operational stability. The best engineering teams don’t just build software; they implement systems of control that allow them to move fast without breaking critical functionality.

What Are Controls, and Why Do They Matter?

Controls are proactive mechanisms that mitigate risk in software development. They range from automated tests and code reviews to security scans and compliance audits, each serving a distinct function in preserving software integrity.

Every outage, security breach, or system failure is caused by some form of change—whether intentional (new features, updates) or accidental (misconfigurations, security oversights). Controls exist to ensure that changes do not introduce unintended consequences.

However, not all controls are equally effective, and a well-designed system must incorporate multiple layers of protection.

The 18 Essential Controls Every Engineering Team Needs

Unit testing is one of many controls that contribute to a resilient and secure software development process. The most effective teams implement multiple layers of safeguards, addressing risks from various angles.

Development

• Code Review – Each commit has a minimum number of approvers
• Code Review History - Each commit since the last production release has the minimum number of approvers
• Pull Request - Each commit to primary or release branch is done via pull request
• Build - The CI pipeline build successfully passed
• Artifact Version - All deployable artifacts built in CI use semantic versioning platforms.
• Artifact Signature - All deployable artifacts built in CI are been signed with a valid private key on an authorized build server
• SLSA Provenance - An immutable statement of the process detailing how the software artifact was created

‍Application Security 

• Software Composition Analysis – Analysis of third party OSS dependencies
• OSS Dependency License Check - All third party open-source dependency licenses are on the company’s whitelist of copyleft licenses
• Container Scan - Vulnerabilities detected from a container image scan
• SBOM - A valid SBOM was generated from source code or a container image by a valid source and signed by an a trusted source
• SAST - Vulnerabilities detected from static application security testing
• DAST - Vulnerabilities detected from dynamic application security testing
• IAST - Routes and vulnerabilities detected from interactive application security testing
• Secrets Detection - Detecting the use of secrets, including passords and API keys, in application source code
• Manual Pen Test Workflow - Catalogued workflow stages and artifacts from manual penetration testing

‍Quality Assurance

• Unit Test Report - Unit tests were executed and passing, and a full unit test report is produced
• Unit Test Coverage (Overall) - Overall code coverage meets or exceeds minimum threshold
• Unit Test Coverage (New) - Code coverage on new code added since last production release meets or exceeds minimum threshold
• Static Code Analysis - Various metrics from static code analysis meet minimum thresholds (maintainability, reliability, etc.)
• Functional Tests - Appropriate functional tests are executed and passed. If manual tests were run, test artifacts have been captured
• Performance Tests - Performance test suite was executed and passed. If manual tests were run, test artifacts have been captured
• Accessibility Tests - Accessibility test suite was executed and passed. If manual tests were run, test artifacts have been captured

‍Infrastructure 

• IaC Configuration - Proactive detection of misconfiguration (root privileges, version pinning, policy as code, etc.)
• IaC & GitOps Linting - Linting checks for Ansible and Terraform files, and Helm deployment charts.

Each of these controls plays a critical role in maintaining software integrity, security, and performance.

‍The Right Controls at the Right Time

‍Not all controls are applied at the same stage of development. Some, such as unit testing and code review, occur early in the process, while others, like penetration testing and compliance audits, take place later.Organizations must strategically layer these controls to balance security with agility, ensuring that safeguards enhance, rather than hinder, development velocity.

‍Fundamental Controls Provide Strong Protection

‍Implementing controls does not require excessive complexity. Effective security and compliance measures should be integrated seamlessly into the development workflow, rather than acting as obstacles to progress.For example, in home security, a locked door and security camera provide substantial protection without requiring an armed security team at every entrance. The same principle applies to software—while advanced security frameworks exist, even basic controls like automated testing, code reviews, and dependency scanning dramatically reduce risk.

‍Build for Resilience, Not Just Speed

‍The most effective engineering teams are not those constantly reacting to failures but those that have designed their systems to prevent failures before they occur.Every implemented control strengthens software reliability, security, and scalability. By integrating structured controls into the development process, teams can ship faster, reduce risk, and innovate with confidence.At Fianu, we believe in controls that accelerate, rather than restrict, software development. The right safeguards make high-velocity engineering sustainable, ensuring that organizations can build at scale—without compromising stability.