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Secure Software Development Lifecycle Mastery

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Includes a practical, ready-to-use toolkit with implementation templates, worksheets, checklists, and decision-support materials so you can apply what you learn immediately - no additional setup required.
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Secure Software Development Lifecycle Mastery

You're under pressure. Deadlines are tight, stakeholders demand faster releases, and security can't be an afterthought-yet vulnerabilities slip through. You know one breach could damage your company’s reputation, cost millions, and stall your career.

Compliance checklists and patchwork fixes aren’t enough. What you need is a systematic, repeatable, organisation-wide approach to building security in from day one. Something that doesn’t slow delivery-but makes it smarter, faster, and more resilient.

Secure Software Development Lifecycle Mastery gives you exactly that. This isn’t theory. It’s a 100% actionable blueprint to transform how software is designed, developed, and deployed-with security as the core driver, not the last-minute fix.

Imagine walking into your next architecture meeting with a fully scoped SDL process tailored to your tech stack, team size, and risk profile. One that aligns developers, QA, legal, and DevOps around a shared standard-proven to reduce vulnerabilities by 60–80% within the first release cycle.

Like Sarah Lin, Senior Security Lead at a Fortune 500 fintech firm, who implemented the framework from this course across 14 development teams. In 90 days, her organisation cut high-severity bugs by 74% and received formal recognition from the CISO for “raising the security maturity of engineering faster than any prior initiative.”

No fluff. No buzzwords. Just a step-by-step, field-tested system used by top-tier enterprises to deliver secure software at speed, with traceability, compliance, and confidence.

Here’s how this course is structured to help you get there.



Course Format & Delivery Details

Self-Paced. On-Demand. Built for Real Professionals.

Join thousands of software engineers, architects, and security leads who’ve mastered the Secure Software Development Lifecycle on their own time, without disrupting their workflow.

  • Self-paced, immediate online access - Start the moment you enroll. No waiting for cohorts or scheduled starts.
  • On-demand learning - No fixed dates, no rigid timelines. Complete the material in as little as 3 weeks or stretch it to fit your schedule. Most learners report implementing their first SDL control within 5 days of starting.
  • Lifetime access - Revisit modules anytime. All future updates are included at no extra cost, ensuring your knowledge stays current with evolving threats and compliance standards.
  • 24/7 global access - Learn from any device, anywhere. Fully compatible with desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers-perfect for engineers on the move.

Learn with Full Confidence and Zero Risk

You want to know this works before you invest your time and trust. We eliminate every barrier.

  • Hands-on instructor guidance - Receive direct support from a certified secure development practitioner with over a decade of experience deploying SDLs in regulated environments (finance, healthcare, SaaS). Real questions get real answers-within 24 hours.
  • Certificate of Completion issued by The Art of Service - A globally recognised credential that validates your mastery of enterprise-grade secure development practices. Shareable on LinkedIn, embedded in email signatures, and valued by hiring managers in top tech firms.
  • No hidden fees - One transparent price covers everything: curriculum, templates, tools, assessments, and certification. No upsells, no subscriptions.
  • Payment options - Secure checkout accepts Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal.
  • 30-day satisfied or fully refunded guarantee - If the course doesn’t meet your expectations, just reach out. No forms, no hassle. Your investment is protected.

This Course Works - Even If You’ve Tried Before

We know you’ve seen frameworks that look good on paper but break down in practice. This is different.

This course works even if:

  • You’re not a security specialist-but need to lead SDL adoption in your team.
  • Your developers resist “security slowing them down.”
  • Your organisation lacks formal policies or dedicated AppSec staff.
  • You're already using bits of an SDL but need to unify and scale it.
  • You're transitioning to DevOps, CI/CD, or cloud-native development and need to modernise your approach.
After enrollment, you’ll receive a confirmation email. Your access details will be delivered separately once your course materials are prepared-ensuring a clean, error-free onboarding process.

We’ve built this for people like you: engineers who don’t want flashy promises, but precision, depth, and real leverage in their work. This is your advantage-systematised.



Module 1: Foundations of Secure Software Development

  • Why traditional security testing fails in modern development
  • The evolution of software vulnerabilities and attack surfaces
  • Cost of failure: Real-world breaches caused by lifecycle gaps
  • What is a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDL)?
  • Core principles: Proactive, integrated, automated, measurable
  • Key benefits: Reduced risk, lower remediation cost, faster compliance
  • SDL vs DevSecOps: Understanding the relationship and distinctions
  • Role of security champions and developer accountability
  • Industry standards: OWASP, NIST, ISO/IEC 27034, BSIMM overview
  • Establishing executive buy-in and organisational alignment


Module 2: Governance, Policies, and Compliance Frameworks

  • Creating an organisation-wide SDL policy
  • Defining roles and responsibilities across teams
  • Aligning SDL with ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS
  • Integrating SDL into corporate risk management
  • Legal and contractual obligations for secure software
  • Third-party vendor and open-source compliance
  • Policy enforcement mechanisms: Gates, checklists, audits
  • Tracking SDL maturity with BSIMM or OWASP SAMM
  • Benchmarking against industry peers
  • Documenting and maintaining SDL governance records


Module 3: Threat Modeling and Risk Assessment

  • Introduction to threat modeling: Purpose and impact
  • STRIDE framework: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, Elevation of Privilege
  • Using DREAD for threat prioritisation
  • Data flow diagramming best practices
  • Attacker perspective: Thinking like a hacker
  • Integrating threat modeling into design phase
  • Automated threat modeling tools and templates
  • Performing threat modeling in Agile and CI/CD environments
  • Specialised modeling for microservices and APIs
  • Documenting threats and mitigation strategies
  • Review and validation techniques
  • Scaling threat modeling across multiple teams


Module 4: Secure Requirements and Design

  • Security functional requirements (SFRs) vs non-functional
  • Defining security services: Authentication, authorisation, audit, confidentiality, integrity
  • Secure-by-design principles: Least privilege, fail-safe defaults, defence in depth
  • Secure architecture patterns: Zero trust, principle of least astonishment
  • Designing for secure data handling and encryption
  • Session management and token security
  • Secure API design: Input validation, rate limiting, versioning
  • Threat-resistant UI/UX: Anti-clickjacking, CSRF protection
  • Security in cloud-native design (containers, serverless, service mesh)
  • Secure configuration management
  • Architectural risk analysis techniques
  • Capturing security decisions in architecture decision records (ADRs)


Module 5: Secure Coding Standards and Practices

  • Language-specific secure coding guidelines (Java, C++, Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust)
  • Common coding flaws: Buffer overflows, integer overflows, format string issues
  • Input validation: Whitelisting, canonicalisation, context-aware sanitisation
  • Output encoding to prevent XSS
  • Secure error handling and logging
  • Secure use of cryptography: Key management, algorithm selection, TLS best practices
  • Avoiding hardcoded secrets and credentials
  • Secure memory management (especially in C/C++)
  • Thread safety and concurrency issues
  • Dependency hygiene and third-party library risks
  • Secure file handling and path traversal prevention
  • Secure deserialisation practices
  • Session fixation and side-channel risks


Module 6: Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

  • Understanding how SAST works: Source code parsing, pattern matching, data flow analysis
  • Selecting the right SAST tool for your stack
  • Integrating SAST into IDEs for real-time feedback
  • Configuring rulesets and customising checks
  • Handling false positives and tuning accuracy
  • Scan frequency and timing: Pre-commit, build, pull request
  • Reporting and triaging SAST findings
  • Automating SAST in CI/CD pipelines
  • Open-source SAST tools vs commercial solutions
  • Ensuring developer adoption and usability
  • Measuring SAST effectiveness: Scan coverage, time-to-fix
  • Integrating SAST with issue tracking systems


Module 7: Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

  • How DAST differs from SAST: Runtime analysis and black-box testing
  • Scanning web applications and APIs for vulnerabilities
  • Using DAST in pre-production and staging
  • Automating DAST scans with tools like OWASP ZAP and Burp Suite
  • Authentication-aware scanning and session handling
  • Performance considerations and scan throttling
  • Analysing DAST reports: Critical, high, medium severity
  • Correlating DAST with SAST and SCA results
  • Testing for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
  • Scanning single-page applications and SPAs
  • API security testing with DAST
  • Integrating DAST into continuous deployment pipelines
  • Limitations and mitigation strategies


Module 8: Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

  • Understanding open-source software risks
  • Scanning dependencies with SCA tools
  • Interpreting SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials)
  • Managing vulnerabilities in third-party libraries
  • License compliance: Avoiding GPL and copyleft risks
  • Automating dependency updates and patching
  • Integrating SCA into build pipelines
  • Managing transitive dependencies
  • Establishing acceptable risk thresholds
  • Tracking dependency usage across projects
  • Using OSS Index and security advisories
  • Prioritising updates based on exploitability


Module 9: Secure Build and Deployment

  • Hardening build environments and agents
  • Immutable builds and reproducible builds
  • Signing artifacts and containers
  • Secure configuration of CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions)
  • Environment segregation: Dev, QA, Staging, Prod
  • Secure secrets management in pipelines
  • Automated security gates in deployment workflows
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security: Terraform, CloudFormation
  • Container security: Image scanning, minimal base images, non-root users
  • Serverless function hardening
  • Blue-green and canary deployment security considerations
  • Rollback safety and incident response preparedness


Module 10: Secure Testing and Penetration Testing

  • Integrating security testing into QA processes
  • Writing test cases for security requirements
  • Manual testing techniques for common vulnerabilities
  • Engaging penetration testers: Scope, rules of engagement, deliverables
  • Red team vs blue team dynamics
  • Executing internal penetration tests
  • Reporting and triage workflows
  • Retesting and verification process
  • Automating regression security tests
  • Security test coverage metrics
  • Performance impact of security tests
  • Secure testing in microservices ecosystems


Module 11: Security in Agile and DevOps

  • Embedding security into sprints and user stories
  • Security tasks in backlogs: Epics, features, acceptance criteria
  • AppSec in Scrum, Kanban, SAFe
  • Implementing security spikes and time-boxed investigations
  • Shift-left security: Bringing checks earlier in the pipeline
  • Automated security feedback loops
  • Developer incentives and gamification
  • Integrating security into Definition of Done
  • Training developers with security mini-workshops
  • Feedback mechanisms: Dashboards, metrics, alerts
  • Handling security debt in Agile
  • Collaborative tools for AppSec-Dev-QA alignment


Module 12: Secure Change and Configuration Management

  • Change control processes for secure software
  • Code review with security focus
  • Peer review checklists and templates
  • Pull request security gates
  • Version control best practices: Branching, merging, tagging
  • Secure handling of configuration files
  • Environment-specific configuration management
  • Audit trails for changes and deployments
  • Access control for configuration management systems
  • Automated validation of configuration changes
  • Handling emergency changes securely
  • Post-change verification and monitoring


Module 13: Incident Response and Vulnerability Management

  • Creating an SDL-aligned incident response plan
  • Handling discovered vulnerabilities in production
  • Coordinating with CSIRT, legal, and PR teams
  • Responsible disclosure processes
  • CVSS scoring and severity classification
  • Triaging and prioritising vulnerabilities
  • Tracking fixes through development lifecycle
  • Security patch management workflow
  • Zero-day response procedures
  • Post-incident reviews and process improvements
  • Learning from near-misses and false alarms
  • Integrating lessons into future SDL iterations


Module 14: Metrics, Monitoring, and Continuous Improvement

  • Defining KPIs for SDL effectiveness
  • Measuring mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to remediate (MTTR)
  • Tracking vulnerability density and escape rate
  • Security gate pass/fail rates in pipelines
  • Scan coverage across codebases
  • Developer engagement metrics: Training completion, issue fixes
  • Creating AppSec dashboards for leadership
  • Benchmarking over time and across teams
  • Using data for continuous improvement
  • Annual SDL review and refresh cycle
  • Feedback loops from operations and SOC
  • Integrating SDL metrics into performance reviews


Module 15: Training, Culture, and Adoption

  • Designing role-specific secure coding training
  • Interactive workshops and secure coding challenges
  • Security awareness for non-technical stakeholders
  • Creating and supporting security champions
  • Mentorship and peer learning programs
  • Using gamification and recognition
  • Measuring training effectiveness
  • Overcoming resistance to security processes
  • Communicating success stories and wins
  • Promoting psychological safety in AppSec reporting
  • Scaling training across large organisations
  • External certifications and continuous learning paths


Module 16: SDL Integration with Enterprise Systems

  • Integrating SDL with Jira, ServiceNow, Azure DevOps
  • Mapping security tasks to project management workflows
  • Linking threat models to architecture repositories
  • Synchronising with ITSM and change management systems
  • Connecting to SIEM and SOAR platforms
  • Automating alerts and escalations
  • Feeding SDL data into enterprise risk dashboards
  • API integrations between security tools
  • Centralised logging and audit trail aggregation
  • Single sign-on and identity federation for AppSec tools
  • Role-based access control across integrated systems
  • Data retention and privacy compliance in integrations


Module 17: Advanced Topics in Secure Development

  • Secure development for AI/ML systems
  • Data poisoning and model inversion attacks
  • Securing training data pipelines
  • Confidential computing and enclave-based development
  • Memory-safe languages and their role in SDL
  • Formal methods and correctness proofs
  • Fuzz testing and evolutionary testing
  • Exploit mitigation techniques: ASLR, DEP, stack canaries
  • Secure firmware and embedded systems development
  • IoT device security lifecycle
  • Hardware-rooted trust and secure boot
  • Zero-knowledge design and privacy-preserving systems
  • Post-quantum cryptography readiness
  • Threat modeling for adversarial AI


Module 18: Certification, Career Advancement, and Next Steps

  • Preparing for your Certificate of Completion assessment
  • Final project: Design an SDL for a real-world application
  • Submitting your workflow, documentation, and artefacts
  • Receiving feedback and final certification
  • Adding your Certificate of Completion issued by The Art of Service to LinkedIn
  • Using your certification in job applications and performance reviews
  • Building a personal portfolio of secure development projects
  • Advancing to roles: AppSec Engineer, SDL Architect, CISO Path
  • Joining professional networks: OWASP, ISACA, (ISC)²
  • Continuing education: Certifications, conferences, communities
  • Creating a personal SDL implementation roadmap
  • Mentoring others and scaling your impact
  • Staying current with emerging threats and tools
  • Lifetime access renewal and update notifications
  • Alumni resources and exclusive content access