AI + Data + Cloud · Pillar 6
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Security & Quality
Adoption & Scaling
6,298Real Tests
6,298 real tests. 104K lines of mock theater deleted. SOC2 + APRA CPS 234 alignment. Zero testing theater.
⚡ First SAST scan in <2 minutes via container
AI agents build governed & Humans ship trusted. 80% autonomy & 100% accountability.
Section Six (Ch.28-32)
The Keys to Unlock Adoption and Scaling
“For every $1 you spend on developing a digital solution, plan to spend at least another $1 (and sometimes more) to ensure full adoption and scaling. That additional $1 will go toward implementing process changes, user training, change management initiatives.”
Chapter 31: Managing risk and building digital trust. Beware of the new risks introduced by your digital and AI transformation into areas such as cybersecurity, data privacy, and AI biases. ADLC addresses this through deterministic hook enforcement, APRA CPS 234 + SOC2 alignment, supply chain SBOM, and the Testing Theater anti-pattern elimination.
Platform Evolution
AI vulnerability detection improves with model updates. NemoClaw kernel-level sandboxing adds hardware-enforced boundaries. Anti-pattern catalog grows with each incident.
Security & Quality Golden Path
Each phase answers: Who does it, Why it matters, What if you skip it
1Scan
Static analysis, container scanning, secret detection — shift-left
/security:sastWho: devops-security-engineer scans, security-compliance-engineer reviews findings
Why: Shift-left: 10x cheaper to fix in dev than prod. Zero critical/high vulnerabilities before merge.
Skip? Vulnerabilities ship to production, post-deployment remediation costs 10x more, audit findings
→ SAST report + container scan + secret detection results
2Test
3-tier testing with real APIs — battle tests, not mock theater
/cloudops:theater-check + /cloudops:theater-auditWho: qa-engineer validates test quality, HITL reviews coverage report
Why: DRYRUN_OVER_READONLY prevented — real API validation with READONLY profiles. 6,298 real tests, 104K lines of mock theater deleted.
Skip? TESTING_THEATER — inflated pass rates, mocks without assertions, production surprises despite green CI
→ Theater score (0-100) + orphan count + mock density + coverage gate status
3Comply
SOC2, APRA CPS 234, ISO 27001 evidence generation and posture check
/aws:security-posture + /security:cert-inventoryWho: security-compliance-engineer gates compliance, HITL reviews evidence package
Why: Regulatory risk caught at design time. Audit evidence auto-generated, not assembled manually over weeks.
Skip? Compliance surprises during quarterly audit, manual evidence collection taking weeks, failed certifications
→ Security Hub findings ranked by severity + cert expiry dashboard + SOC2 mapping
4Harden
Supply chain SBOM, Docker registry enforcement, signed images
/devcontainer:validate-registryWho: devops-security-engineer hardens supply chain, hooks enforce deterministically
Why: SLSA Level 2+ provenance. Chainguard Wolfi base images are sigstore-signed. Only nnthanh101/* registries allowed.
Skip? Unsigned images in production, dependency confusion attacks, supply chain compromise
→ Registry compliance score + SBOM generated + Trivy clean
5Sustain
Anti-pattern catalog grows, testing theater audits, quality ratchet
/speckit.retrospective + /metrics:sprint-reviewWho: developer-experience-engineer extracts patterns from incidents, HITL decides framework improvements
Why: Each anti-pattern cost real sessions to discover. The catalog (64 patterns) prevents repeat failures across all projects.
Skip? Same security mistakes repeated, testing theater creeps back, quality degrades over time
→ Updated anti-pattern catalog + quality metrics + improvement actions
Start Here
Spec-Driven workflow and product skills — copy/paste to start
Security Engineer
You need shift-left security for your CI/CD pipeline. Container + code scanning.
1./security:sast
2./devcontainer:validate-registry
3./aws:security-posture
⚡ First SAST scan in <2 minutes
QA Lead
You manage test quality across the team. Zero testing theater tolerance.
1./cloudops:theater-check
2./cloudops:theater-audit
3./metrics:sprint-review
⚡ Testing theater score in <5 minutes
Compliance Officer
You need audit evidence for SOC2, APRA CPS 234, ISO 27001. Auto-generated.
1./aws:security-posture
2./security:cert-inventory
3.bash scripts/governance-score.sh
⚡ Audit evidence package in 1 hour
Component Map
9 components implementing this pillar
| Type | Name | Why | Business Value |
|---|
| Agent | security-compliance-engineer (opus) | SOC2, APRA CPS 234, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS compliance gating | Regulatory risk caught at design — not after audit |
| Agent | qa-engineer (sonnet) | 3-tier test strategy: snapshot / LocalStack / AWS live | 90-100% bug detection before production deployment |
| Agent | devops-security-engineer (sonnet) | CI/CD supply chain hardening, SBOM, Trivy scanning | SLSA Level 2+ provenance on every release |
| Command | /security:sast | SAST + container scanning via nnthanh101/terraform:slim | Zero critical/high vulnerabilities before merge |
| Skill | testing/3-mode-validation | Playwright + AWS MCP combined accuracy gate (>=97%) | Two independent sources — SELF_COMPARISON_VALIDATION prevented |
| Skill | testing/battle-conftest | L1 (--help) / L3 (real READONLY) battle test tiers | DRYRUN_OVER_READONLY prevented — real API validation |
| Skill | bdd/feature-coverage | BDD scenarios with pytest-bdd step definitions | Business language tests that non-engineers can read |
| Hook | detect-testing-theater.sh | Block mocks without assertions, coverage omit expansion | 6,298 real tests — 104K lines of mock theater deleted |
| Hook | detect-hardcoded-env-data.sh | Block AWS account IDs, org IDs in product docs | HARDCODED_ENV_IN_PRODUCT_DOCS eliminated from git history |
Risk & Scalability
What happens without this pillar, and why ADLC scales from 1 person to enterprise
What if you skip?
Industry research: for every $1 you spend on developing a digital solution, plan to spend at least another $1 (and sometimes more) to ensure full adoption and scaling. Beware of the new risks introduced by digital and AI transformation into areas such as cybersecurity, data privacy, and AI biases. Without security and quality gates, adoption fails because users don’t trust the system.
Scalability
Testing theater detection and supply chain enforcement are automated via hooks. Coverage gates are honest (fail_under measured, not estimated). The quality bar is the same whether shipping a PyPI package or deploying to production AWS accounts.
Industry Relevance
ANZ enterprise verticals where this pillar is most critical
FSI
APRA CPS 234 + SOC2 Type II audit evidence generation
Energy
NERC CIP-013 supply chain security with SBOM attestation
Telecom
GSMA security accreditation for network function virtualization
Aviation
DO-178C Level A requires 100% structural coverage — no theater allowed
Digital Products
Real products built and governed by this pillar
Explore Pillar 6 Components
Browse the full component catalog or read the documentation
AI agents build governed & Humans ship trusted.