OpsLevel Logo
Product

Visibility

Catalog

Keep an automated record of truth

Integrations

Unify your entire tech stack

AI Engine

Restoring knowledge & generating insight

Standards

Scorecards

Measure and improve software health

Campaigns

Action on cross-cutting initiatives with ease

Checks

Get actionable insights

Developer Autonomy

Service Templates

Spin up new services within guardrails

Self-service Actions

Empower devs to do more on their own

Knowledge Center

Tap into API & Tech Docs in one single place

Featured Resource

Click-through Tour: OpsLevel Overview
Click-through Tour: OpsLevel Overview
Read more
Use Cases

Use cases

Improve Standards

Set and rollout best practices for your software

Drive Ownership

Build accountability and clarity into your catalog

Developer Experience

Free up your team to focus on high-impact work

Featured Resource

The Ultimate Guide to Microservices Versioning Best Practices
The Ultimate Guide to Microservices Versioning Best Practices
Read more
Customers
Our customers

We support leading engineering teams to deliver high-quality software, faster.

More customers
Hudl
Hudl goes from Rookie to MVP with OpsLevel
Read more
Hudl
Keller Williams
Keller Williams’ software catalog becomes a vital source of truth
Read more
Keller Williams
Duolingo
How Duolingo automates service creation and maintenance to tackle more impactful infra work
Read more
Duolingo
Resources
Our resources

Explore our library of helpful resources and learn what your team can do with OpsLevel.

All resources

Resource types

Blog

Resources, tips, and the latest in engineering insights

Guide

Practical resources to roll out new programs and features

Demo

Videos of our product and features

Events

Live and on-demand conversations

Interactive Demo

See OpsLevel in action

Pricing

Flexible and designed for your unique needs

Docs
Log In
Book a demo
Log In
Book a demo
No items found.
Share this
Book a demo
Table of contents
 link
 
Resources
Blog

The top 3 application security metrics every engineering team should track

Security
Campaigns
Checks
Scorecard
The top 3 application security metrics every engineering team should track
Megan Dorcey
|
April 30, 2025

AI-generated code and the rise of agentic workflows have increased the need for engineering teams to protect their ever-expanding software surface area from security vulnerabilities. Having the right tools to measure, track, and improve your application’s security posture is essential—as is collecting the right metrics to keep teams informed and aligned. Teams that adopt application security metrics as part of their definition of software maturity can continuously monitor how the changing threat landscape affects their overall velocity and software quality.

In this article, we’ll share the top three application security metrics every engineering team should track, along with tooling recommendations to ensure accurate metrics and awareness across teams.

Top 3 application security metrics to track

1. Code coverage

  • What it measures: Percentage of code scanned, types of scans performed, and at what frequency
  • Why it matters: Comprehensive coverage leads to faster detection of vulnerabilities introduced through code.
  • How to track: Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools, Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools, Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools, and Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) tools.

2. Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR)

  • What it measures: The average time taken to resolve identified security vulnerabilities.
  • Why it matters: Prompt remediation demonstrates strong security culture and mitigates risk.
  • How to track: Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools, Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools, Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools, and Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) tools.

3. Number of services with vulnerabilities (by severity)

  • What it measures: Services and dependencies containing vulnerabilities across your software ecosystem
  • Why it matters: Illuminates risk exposure and allows you to address critical vulnerabilities with urgency.
  • How to track: Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools, Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools, Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools, and Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) tools.

How to track application security metrics 

Implementing the right security tools ensures accurate tracking and metrics gathering. While security testing tools fall into several categories, there's considerable overlap as tools expand to cover more surface area. The most common categories include Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)–all of which are useful and necessary in achieving a comprehensive view of application security posture.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

  • Purpose: Scans source code for vulnerabilities early in development.
  • Popular Tools: SonarQube, Snyk, Veracode, Synopsys

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

  • Purpose: Simulates external attacks on applications.
    Popular Tools: Acunetix, Veracode, StackHawk

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)

  • Purpose: Combines aspects of SAST and DAST for real-time vulnerability assessment.
  • Popular Tools: Synopsys, Contrast Security

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

  • Purpose: Scans third-party libraries for known vulnerabilities.
  • Popular Tools: Veracode, Snyk, Synopsys

Surfacing application security metrics in an internal developer portal

It’s not uncommon to have multiple security solutions in place across your software ecosystem, leaving teams with alerts and metrics living across many different tools. An internal developer portal can centralize activity from many different security integrations in a single hub–within the context of everything developers need for building, deploying, and maintaining software.

Beyond centralizing activity and alerts, an internal developer portal should support your organization’s application security initiatives in the following ways:

Integrate with security scanning tools 

  • Incorporate real-time vulnerability data from SAST, DAST, IAST, and SCA tools and surface alerts directly within your developer portal, enabling real-time response to critical issues.

Automate security checks for every service

  • Conduct automated security checks to track ongoing health and status of your services.

Define security best practices for your engineering organization

  •  Define best practices that can be checked for across services to monitor trends in software and security maturity over time.

Customize dashboards for application security metrics

  • Build graphs and dashboards for important metrics at the team and organization level to monitor progress and keep teams prioritizing the most important things.

The Internal Developer Portal for Secure Development

OpsLevel is an internal developer portal built to facilitate continuous improvement across all areas of your software ecosystem, from observability to security. OpsLevel integrates with popular security tools like Snyk, Veracode, and Synopsys to centralize alerts, insights, and metrics directly within your developer portal.

With OpsLevel, you can:

  • Centralize security alerts and important information from security tools in a single place, with support for Snyk, Veracode, Snyopsys, SonarQube, and more.
  • Run security checks against services to ensure you are following best practices, like collecting vulnerability data from scanning tools or ensuring no secrets are stored in code.  
  • Define security best practices using OpsLevel’s Service Maturity Rubric and assess every service’s alignment and compliance with security standards–as part of your organization’s definition of software maturity.
  • Build dashboards for key application security metrics–such as code coverage and Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR)–to track progress over time using OpsLevel’s custom widgets.

OpsLevel makes it easy for engineering teams to track application security metrics and ensure application security best practices are applied across services. Set up time with one of our technical experts to learn more or watch our demo on OpsLevel for security teams.

More resources

Fast code, firm control: A leadership report on AI coding adoption
Blog
Fast code, firm control: A leadership report on AI coding adoption

AI is writing your code; are you ready?

Read more
March Product Updates
Blog
March Product Updates

Some of the big releases from the month of March.

Read more
How Generative AI Is Changing Software Development: Key Insights from the DORA Report
Blog
How Generative AI Is Changing Software Development: Key Insights from the DORA Report

Discover the key findings from the 2024 DORA Report on Generative AI in Software Development. Learn how OpsLevel’s AI-powered tools enhance productivity, improve code quality, and simplify documentation, while helping developers avoid common pitfalls of AI adoption.

Read more
Product
Software catalogMaturityIntegrationsSelf-serviceKnowledge CenterBook a meeting
Company
About usCareersContact usCustomersPartnersSecurity
Resources
DocsEventsBlogPricingDemoGuide to Internal Developer PortalsGuide to Production Readiness
Comparisons
OpsLevel vs BackstageOpsLevel vs CortexOpsLevel vs Atlassian CompassOpsLevel vs Port
Subscribe
Join our newsletter to stay up to date on features and releases.
By subscribing you agree to with our Privacy Policy and provide consent to receive updates from our company.
SOC 2AICPA SOC
© 2024 J/K Labs Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Responsible Disclosure
By using this website, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Data Processing Agreement for more information.
Okay!