The SW-CCM, or SCCM has the following stages, phases, or levels:

  • Initial – good practices are disorganized and chaotic; poorly controlled.
  • Repeatable – reactive practices and a bit more organized but not necessarily defined.
  • Defined – formal practices/processes that are well-understood and proactive.
  • Managed – quantitative, measured, calculatable, and assessable.
  • Optimizing – practices/processes are continuously optimized and improved

Taking the first letter of each level, create an imaginary friend named “IRDMO”.  


Change management concepts

Sometimes called “changeman”, or change control, this is a structured methodology for when applications need to be changed.  The purpose is to prevent the creation of accidental or deliberate security vulnerabilities. Three main philosophies of change management might include:

  • Quality assurance for change
  • The change flow – submission, approval, testing, implementation, recordation (SATIR) – think of a satyr from the Narnia series who changes into stone after disobeying the White Witch.
  • Backout plan for when/if the requested change does not “Pan” out (in Greek mythology, Pan is a satyr-like creature).

Here are a few different approaches to change management:

Integrated product team (IPT) – a group of stakeholders with varying skillsets who work together on the change and are accountable for the outcome.  

Integrated product and process development (IPPD) – the combination of product design and process design.  

DevOps – business driven approach that combines lean and agile principles where development and operations work together and includes other lines of business/stakeholders.  It has the following elements:

  • Testability – develop/test against simulated production systems
  • Deployability – deploy with automated processes that are iterative, repeatable, frequent, and reliable.
  • Monitorability – monitor the application early on to address issues early on.
  • Modifiability – allows for efficient feedback by creating effective communication channels.