A Living Benchmark for High-Performance Software Teams
The Start Left® Excellence Score: The Benchmark for World-Class Software
Traditional software metrics focus on vulnerabilities or compliance—but true excellence is about more.
The Start Left® Excellence Score measures
how well teams build, ship, and improve software—encompassing engineering performance, security maturity, and development efficiency.
Measure Engineering Maturiy
Track execution, optimization, and quality.
Prove Security Adoption
Assess how security is integrated into development workflows.
Why the Excellence Score Matters: It's More Than Just Security
The Start Left® Excellence Score goes beyond vulnerability tracking and compliance—it’s a dynamic benchmark for software engineering, team maturity, and execution effectiveness.
DevSecOps Execution
One score that reflects software quality, development efficiency, and risk reduction.
Prove Maturity
A high score isn’t just about compliance—it’s a signal of world-class software practices.
Engineering excellence isn’t just about reducing risk—it’s about building better software, faster.
How the Excellence Score Works
A living score that evolves with your team—The Start Left® Excellence Score is built on real-world software development, security adoption, and engineering maturity metrics—not just static compliance checklists. Your score evolves over time—rewarding continuous improvement, not just one-time compliance.
Security Execution & Adoption
Evaluates how well security is integrated into development, without slowing teams down.
Engineering Performance
Measures how efficiently teams build, ship, and optimize software.
Developer Growth & Mastery
Tracks upskilling, secure coding improvements, and best practice adoption.
Organizational Maturity
Assesses engineering culture, automation, and team accountability for continuous excellence.
Who uses The Excellence Score
A Trusted Benchmark for Software Buyers, Investors & Leadership: The Excellence Score helps organizations validate software quality, optimize teams, and prove development maturity.
Engineering & Product Leaders
Measure team performance and optimize execution.
GRC & Third-Party Risk Teams
Assess and manage risk across their software or SaaS vendor portfolio.
Executives & Boards
Assess and improve software engineering and security maturity.
Cyber Insurers
Evaluate software security resilience for underwriting policies.
Auditors & Compliance Teams
Validate security and engineering controls with real execution metrics.
Software Vendors
Demonstrate software security, resilience, and efficiency to customers.
Venture Investors
Prioritize investments and evaluate risk in their software investment portfolio.
M&A and Private Equity
Assess software quality, security, and team effectiveness during acquisitions.
Achieve a High Score—
Build Better Software
Turn Security into a Growth Engine
A high Excellence Score proves you're secure, making it easier to pass third-party risk reviews.
Shorten Procurement Cycles
Enterprise buyers want verifiable software quality, not just compliance checkboxes.
