DevOps Pipeline Review for Compliance

✅ Framework for Reviewing DevOps Pipelines Against Enterprise Standards

1. Source Control & Branching

• Standard: All code must be in enterprise GitHub/Azure DevOps/GitLab repos.

• Check:

  • Branching strategy (GitFlow, trunk-based).

  • Mandatory pull requests with reviewers.

  • Commit signing enabled.

  • No secrets/keys committed (use Git hooks + scanners like GitLeaks).

2. Build & Dependency Management

• Standard: Builds must be reproducible, secure, and free from vulnerabilities.

• Check:

  • Use enterprise-approved build agents/images.

  • Dependency scanning (Snyk, WhiteSource, OWASP Dependency-Check).

  • Build artifacts pushed to enterprise artifact repositories (Nexus/Artifactory/Azure Artifacts).

  • Versioning strategy (semantic versioning).

3. Static Code Analysis & Security Scanning

• Standard: Code must meet security & quality gates before promotion.

• Check:

  • Static code analysis (SonarQube/Checkstyle/PMD).

  • Security scanning (Fortify/Veracode).

  • Infrastructure-as-Code scanning (Checkov, Terraform Compliance, Bicep/Terraform linters).

  • Linting rules for style and maintainability.

4. CI/CD Compliance

• Standard: Automated, repeatable, and policy-compliant pipelines.

• Check:

  • Pipeline as code (YAML-based, version controlled).

  • Reusable pipeline templates enforced.

  • Stage gates (Dev → Test → UAT → Prod).

  • Approval workflows for production deployment.

  • Canary/blue-green/rolling deployment strategy aligned with enterprise policy.

5. Secrets & Config Management

• Standard: No secrets in code or pipelines.

• Check:

  • Use enterprise secret vault (Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault).

  • Environment variables managed securely.

  • Configurations externalized (Spring Cloud Config, App Config).

6. Compliance & Auditability

• Standard: All changes must be traceable.

• Check:

  • Pipeline logs centrally stored (Azure Monitor, Splunk, ELK).

  • RBAC/least privilege enforced (pipeline service principals).

  • Audit trails for approvals, rollbacks, and deployments.

7. Testing Standards

• Standard: All pipelines must enforce automated testing.

• Check:

  • Unit test coverage thresholds (≥80%).

  • Integration tests in Test/UAT stages.

  • Performance/load testing in pre-prod.

  • Automated regression testing suites.

8. Artifact & Image Security

• Standard: Only approved, scanned artifacts can go to prod.

• Check:

  • Container image scanning (Trivy, Aqua, Prisma).

  • Signed container images (Notary, Cosign).

  • Golden base images from enterprise registry.

9. Deployment & Environment Compliance

• Standard: Infrastructure should comply with enterprise blueprints.

• Check:

  • IaC templates aligned with enterprise landing zones.

  • Network isolation (no public endpoints unless approved).

  • Policy enforcement (Azure Policy, OPA Gatekeeper).

10. Monitoring & Resilience

• Standard: Observability built-in.

• Check:

  • Logging, metrics, distributed tracing integrated.

  • Health probes in AKS/containers.

  • Auto rollback policies in case of deployment failures.

✅ Example Review Checklist (High-Level)

Category	What to Review	Tooling/Enforcement
Source Control	Branching, approvals, no secrets	GitHub/Azure DevOps policies, GitLeaks
Build & Dependencies	Dependency scanning, reproducibility	Snyk, Nexus, Artifactory
Static Analysis	Quality/security gates	SonarQube, Fortify
CI/CD	Stage gates, approvals	Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab CI
Secrets	Managed securely	Key Vault, Vault
Compliance	Audit logs, RBAC	Azure Policy, OPA
Testing	Coverage, integration tests	JUnit, Postman, LoadRunner
Artifact Security	Image signing, scanning	Trivy, Aqua, Prisma
Deployment	IaC compliance, network isolation	Terraform Compliance, Azure Policy
Monitoring	Logging, tracing, resilience	App Insights, Grafana, Prometheus