How to Scale DAST Testing: 3 Strategic Paths

Scaling Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) across an organization involves choosing among three distinct approaches, each with its own trade-offs: Champion-Led, Governance-Driven, and Platform-Automated. The Champion-Led path relies on security champions to promote adoption within teams, fostering grassroots momentum without executive mandates. Governance-Driven scaling uses executive sponsorship to enforce adoption through standardized documentation and compliance requirements, ensuring comprehensive coverage but possibly encouraging "checkbox compliance." Platform-Automated scaling leverages automation and platform engineering to integrate security testing as a default infrastructure component, offering sustainable scaling but requiring significant initial investment and maturity in automation practices. Successful scaling requires aligning the chosen approach with the organization's readiness, resources, and culture, as well as establishing a self-service onboarding process and metrics to demonstrate value. Organizations often evolve from less sophisticated models to more automated ones as they develop.