Secure SDLC and Controlled Delivery for an In-House and Outsourced Development Model in Healthcare

The challenge

Our healthcare client brought elements of software delivery in-house while continuing to use multiple outsourced development initiatives. As development activity increased, the organisation needed a consistent delivery framework with clear security expectations, release control and leadership visibility.

Without a standardised approach, delivery risk increased: inconsistent coding practices, limited governance across third parties, and reduced confidence that changes were being delivered securely and predictably into production environments.

The solution

As the contracted MSP, we helped implement a secure delivery foundation that standardised how code was built, reviewed and released.

We established a governed GitHub repository model with controlled access and branching, then implemented repeatable CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to create consistent build-and-release patterns. We strengthened environment governance (development, staging, production separation) and introduced clearer promotion paths and release controls.

We also improved identity controls by integrating Microsoft Entra ID authentication into key applications and tightening access across repositories, pipelines and environments, reducing the risk associated with unmanaged credentials and inconsistent access practices.

The results

The client moved to a more consistent and controlled delivery approach, improving coordination between internal teams and third-party developers.

Leadership gained improved visibility of delivery readiness, and the organisation was better positioned to scale software delivery while maintaining stronger security and compliance discipline appropriate for healthcare data and services.

To reinforce this foundation, we introduced a practical secure-by-default CI/CD approach using common cloud-native capabilities without overengineering. Source control and delivery workflows are governed through branch protections and pull-request reviews, supported by baseline security checks including secret scanning, dependency vulnerability scanning (SCA), lightweight SAST and, where relevant, infrastructure-as-code validation and scanning. Secrets are managed through vault-based patterns with least-privilege access, ensuring credentials remain outside code and pipeline variables.

Release assurance follows structured Dev–Stage–Prod promotion with environment approvals, health gates and change management alignment, alongside clear incident linkage for traceability. Rollback is designed to be fast and deterministic using prior release artefacts, slot-based recovery or redeployment of immutable, versioned container images from trusted registries with integrated vulnerability signals. To evidence control and reliability, we track a focused set of DORA-aligned metrics such as deployment frequency and time to restore service, with change failure rate monitored where appropriate — improving operational visibility, auditability and confidence in secure delivery at scale.