Codenotary Trustcenter Blog

Why SBOM is important for software development

Written by @sven | Feb 22, 2023 1:53:48 PM

Introduction

The Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is a way to organize the code in your system. It's like a master list of all the pieces that make up your app or program, and it can be used by developers and testers alike. In this article, we'll talk about what an SBOM is and why it's important for everyone involved in the software development process.

Picture by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

What is a Software Bill of Materials?

The SBOM is a list of all the software components and their versions used in a software project. It can be used to track the use of components and the versions of components used in a software project.

The SBOM is important because it allows you to:

  • Know which versions of your dependencies are compatible with each other; this helps prevent breaking changes when upgrading dependencies or deploying new features (e.g., if two packages require different versions of another package).
  • Verify that all dependencies have been installed correctly; if not, then someone forgot something or made an error during installation (this happened frequently at my previous job).
  • Quickly see what kinds of files are included with each component so that you can easily find where they're located on disk if needed (e..g., ".py" vs ".js").

Why use Software Bill of Materials?

Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is a mechanism for managing your code. It helps you to find what you need when you need it, and see the big picture of your software.

Software development is an iterative process where requirements change constantly; therefore, there's no such thing as one-time coding done right. If a developer writes a piece of code that he has no intention of using again in future projects, then he has wasted his time writing it in the first place.

Developers should only write new functionality if they know that this functionality will truly be needed by someone else later on down the line--or at least provide enough documentation so other developers can understand how this part works so they can re-use it elsewhere if needed (like API documentation).

How can you use the Software Bill of Materials to improve the software development process?

SBOM is a great tool for helping you make sure that you are keeping your project on track. While it is not mandatory to use SBOM, it can be very useful in making sure that your software development team is working efficiently and effectively. The most important thing about using SBOM is that it helps ensure that every piece of functionality has been accounted for in the design stage, so there are no surprises later on in development when something doesn't work as expected or needs additional features added on top of what was originally planned out.

Using this process will also help prevent unnecessary complexity being added into the system--something which happens all too often when creating new software applications!

Using an SBOM will help you manage your code and make it easier to find what you need when you need it.

An SBOM is a tool that helps you manage your software. It makes it easier to find what you need when you need it, which can help improve the development process.

For example, let's say that you want to add a new feature but don't know where in the codebase (or even if) this feature already exists; using an SBOM would allow for easy searching and navigation through all of your code.

SBOMs also allows for the quick identification of bugs by allowing users to search through their logs and tracebacks more easily than before

Trustcenter

We at Codenotary have made it our goal to provide our customers with safe, simple, and secure software to allow you to keep your software delivery lifecycle as short as possible. To that end, we have developed Trustcenter/Enterprise. Trustcenter/Enterprise is the most scalable platform to enforce and automate zero trust for your software delivery lifecycle. With the integrated Trustcenter TrueSBOM, you will always be aware of the risk score of every single software component. Trustcenter TrueSBOM allows you to monitor changes in your components in real time and thereby can assure that only secured components are shipped to production.

Conclusion

The software bill of materials is a great way to manage your code and make it easier to find what you need when you need it. It also allows you to organize your files in a way that makes sense for your project so that everyone on the team can work together efficiently. Codenotary’s Trustcenter/Enterprise and the integrated TrueSBOM are easy and reliable approaches for you to shorten and secure your software delivery lifecycle. If you're looking for ways to improve your development process, then using Trustcenter/Enterprise may be just what you need!