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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:sast
Who: 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-audit
Who: 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-inventory
Who: 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-registry
Who: 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-review
Who: 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

TypeNameWhyBusiness Value
Agentsecurity-compliance-engineer (opus)SOC2, APRA CPS 234, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS compliance gatingRegulatory risk caught at design — not after audit
Agentqa-engineer (sonnet)3-tier test strategy: snapshot / LocalStack / AWS live90-100% bug detection before production deployment
Agentdevops-security-engineer (sonnet)CI/CD supply chain hardening, SBOM, Trivy scanningSLSA Level 2+ provenance on every release
Command/security:sastSAST + container scanning via nnthanh101/terraform:slimZero critical/high vulnerabilities before merge
Skilltesting/3-mode-validationPlaywright + AWS MCP combined accuracy gate (>=97%)Two independent sources — SELF_COMPARISON_VALIDATION prevented
Skilltesting/battle-conftestL1 (--help) / L3 (real READONLY) battle test tiersDRYRUN_OVER_READONLY prevented — real API validation
Skillbdd/feature-coverageBDD scenarios with pytest-bdd step definitionsBusiness language tests that non-engineers can read
Hookdetect-testing-theater.shBlock mocks without assertions, coverage omit expansion6,298 real tests — 104K lines of mock theater deleted
Hookdetect-hardcoded-env-data.shBlock AWS account IDs, org IDs in product docsHARDCODED_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

Continuous Improvement Flywheel

Each pillar feeds the next — creating a self-reinforcing cycle of capability building

Pillar 6 feeds Pillar 1
Security & QualityProduct Management

Quality metrics and security posture feed back into the business roadmap — closing the continuous improvement loop.

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.