There’s been a huge amount of feedback and lots of refinement to SAMM since the Beta was release last August. I’m happy to report that we’re putting the finishing touches and reviews on the next release as I write. I’ll put together some separate posts that discuss the rationale behind the major changes, but in general, here are some new features in the next release:

• Better introduction – there’s a proper Executive Summary and a section describing the structure of the model before diving into the details
• A section on assessing an existing assurance program – this should help folks that need to map an existing software security program into SAMM (or anyone just performing an assessment of a software security program in general)
• Better guidance on building assurance programs – the Beta had some short text, but the next release includes a bigger section on and building a roadmap for a particular organization
• New layout and design – revamped the ordering of SAMM materials based on feedback from users and there’s a new topical table of contents (to better route people through the resource provided)

I’m looking forward to feedback on the 1.0 release once it’s out this week… stay tuned!