OpenSSF Best Practices Badge: Elevating Trust in DevOps Tools

Co-Author Pratik Jain

The Promise of Trust in DevOps

?Trust is the bedrock of successful collaboration in any human endeavor, perhaps even more so when it comes to the fast-paced world of DevOps. As developers and operations teams work closely together to deliver software at speed, they must have complete faith in each other’s tools, systems and processes. Without trust, friction inevitably develops, slowing down release cycles and negatively impacting innovation, quality and customer satisfaction.?

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This is why the Linux Foundation’s OpenSSF Best Practices badge is so significant. By providing DevOps tools and platforms with a way to demonstrate their security, sustainability and provenance, the badge fosters precisely the kind of trust needed to unlock the full potential of DevOps collaboration.

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The OpenSSF Best Practices Badge in Action

Let’s take a closer look at what the OpenSSF badge entails and why it matters. At its core, the badge is built on ten essential criteria focused on open source best practices around security, quality, vulnerability disclosures and more.

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To earn the badge, projects must have public commitments to timely security updates, community support, threat modeling and an overarching security policy. They must also demonstrate secure development practices, vulnerability reporting and disclosure processes, as well as sustainability through funding and licensing.

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Meeting these rigorous criteria establishes the project’s trustworthiness and gives developers peace of mind that the tools they are building with are created collaboratively, transparently and with the highest standards of quality in mind.

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Take the example of Tekton, the popular open-source framework for creating CI/CD systems that powers GitLab, Red Hat and other major platforms. Tekton recently earned the OpenSSF Best Practices badge, validation of the project’s security, sustainability and transparency.

For Tekton, the badge demonstrates to its community that it is serious about earning their trust. Features like public security commitments, vulnerability disclosures and a funded security team increase confidence in the software supply chain and foster collaboration between Tekton and its users.

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Other pragmatic benefits abound too. The discipline of implementing badge best practices has improved contributor documentation, making Tekton more accessible. It has also accelerated licensing updates to clarify usage terms.

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Most importantly, Tekton users now have the assurance that the project has instituted industry best practices around sustainability and security. This confidence in turn amplifies adoption, energizes contributions and creates a virtuous cycle of transparency and collective innovation.

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The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and its Best Practices badge illuminate a path forward where trust is not assumed, but earned through a transparent display of project health, sustainability and dedication to users’ best interests.

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The Promise of Open Collaboration

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Indeed, the collaborative open source model behind the badge may be its most crucial asset. The OpenSSF brings together a community of security experts, maintainers, open source foundations and vendors to co-create pragmatic solutions that benefit all participants in the open source ecosystem.

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This cooperative approach sits in stark contrast to the fractured state of software security, where vendors often act in their own interests rather than the broader community’s. OpenSSF rejects this notion, striving instead for “security in the open, for the open”.

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By mobilizing a diverse community, OpenSSF leverages collective intelligence to build trust at scale. Its best practices reflect real-world security needs rather than any single organization’s agenda. The badge thus signifies truly vendor-neutral confidence earned through transparency, peer review and collaboration.

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Let’s return to Tekton for an example of this open ethos in action. The project’s journey to earning the badge was not a check-the-box compliance exercise done in isolation. Instead, Tekton turned it into an opportunity to closely engage with its community.

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Developers and users were invited to review badge requirements, identify gaps and shape how Tekton could improve. This collaborative process amplified existing community ties and attracted new contributors with fresh perspectives.

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Far from being a burden, pursuing the badge became a growth experience that enhanced Tekton’s openness. The project emerged more hardened against threats, more welcoming to new users and more poised to scale sustainably.

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By rallying its community around a shared security and transparency mission, Tekton harnessed the collective intelligence of the open source model. Its story demonstrates how the OpenSSF badge can nourish collaborative norms that pay dividends long after the badge is earned.

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?The Call to Action

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The OpenSSF Best Practices badge’s community-driven approach gives it unmatched credibility as a symbol of users’ trust and interests. The 10 transparent criteria create a mechanism for projects to continually improve, adapt and earn users’ confidence over time.

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These virtues perfectly address the paramount need in DevOps culture: trust between practitioners using shared tools. Just as Tekton enhanced collaboration and sustainability by pursuing the badge, every DevOps project should view it as a blueprint for strengthening bonds with its users.

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So today, I issue a call to action to all DevOps tool projects: Follow Tekton’s lead and pledge to earn the OpenSSF Best Practices badge. By fulfilling its 10 well-defined criteria, you signal your commitment to users’ trust and security. This builds faith in your project’s supply chain, fosters community collaboration and unlocks the speed, quality and innovation that define successful DevOps.

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Visit openssf.org to learn more about the Badge program, available training and how your project can get started today. As the saying goes, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” Together, we can put in the years of work now to build tomorrow’s healthier, more trusted open source ecosystem.

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