Maximising Impact: Strategies for Successful Training and Engagement
As developers, it can be challenging to navigate the constantly-evolving landscape of secure coding best practices. By fostering a culture of learning and recognising the efforts of individual developers, companies can not only improve their overall security posture but also keep their development teams engaged and motivated to continuously improve their secure coding skills.
Our customers have found that the following approaches have been particularly effective in achieving this goal by:
Small Business Plans
- Assembling users in Teams and assigning Team Managers. An internal study found that teams with a Team Manager on the platform had an average on-time-training-completion rate of 75%, compared to only 45% for teams without a Team Manager.
- Clear and consistent communication between Programme Managers and Team Managers has been key to successfully federating secure coding initiatives. By scheduling regular check-ins with Team Managers, Programme Managers are better able to understand the sensitive schedules of developers and plan training activities and events accordingly.
- Executive and leadership messaging are ideal for conveying messages related to the importance of promoting a security culture and communicating the organisation’s appreciation of developer participation. Team Managers who check in with team members every 6-8 weeks to discuss their progress and appreciate top performers have seen the best results.
- Implementing email notifications can be a simple yet effective way to keep participants engaged in secure coding training activities. By changing the frequency of email notifications, you can remind participants of upcoming training activities and help them stay engaged with the initiative. For more information on notifications, click here .
Here are some additional suggestions to consider:
- Encouraging developers to share their knowledge and experiences with their peers through presentations, roundtable discussions, or brown-bag lunches.
- A more advanced approach is to create a "buddy system" or mentorship programme where more experienced developers can guide their less experienced colleagues along the path of secure coding best practices.
Enterprise Plans
- Assembling users in Teams and assigning Team Managers. An internal study found that teams with a Team Manager on the platform had an average on-time-training-completion rate of 75%, compared to only 45% for teams without a Team Manager.
- Clear and consistent communication between Programme Managers and Team Managers has been key to successfully federating secure coding initiatives. By scheduling regular check-ins with Team Managers, Programme Managers are better able to understand the sensitive schedules of developers and plan training activities and events accordingly.
- Recognising developers' individual efforts and announcing tournament winners and their rewards positively impacts how they engage with the program. In the longer term, it will play a role in improving their security maturity and creating a positive security culture across the organisation.
- Executive and leadership messaging are ideal for conveying messages related to the importance of promoting a security culture and communicating the organisation’s appreciation of developer participation. Team Managers who check in with team members every 6-8 weeks to discuss their progress and appreciate top performers have seen the best results.
Info: SecureFlag offers monitoring licences at no cost for Team Managers who want to monitor their team's progress but not run labs.
- Implementing email notifications can be a simple yet effective way to keep participants engaged in secure coding training activities. By changing the frequency of email notifications, you can remind participants of upcoming training activities and help them stay engaged with the initiative.
For more information on notifications, click here.
Here are some additional suggestions to consider:
- Hosting Secure Coding Challenges or twice-a-year tournaments on secure coding concepts and techniques.
- Encouraging developers to share their knowledge and experiences with their peers through presentations, roundtable discussions, or brown-bag lunches.
- A more advanced approach is to create a "buddy system" or mentorship programme where more experienced developers can guide their less experienced colleagues along the path of secure coding best practices.
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