Threat modeling is a structured technique for identifying what can go wrong in a system before it goes wrong. Applied to CI/CD pipelines, it asks four questions: what are we building, what can go wrong, what are we doing about it, and did we do a good job. The output is a prioritised list of risks with mitigations — not a comprehensive list of every possible attack, but a focused view of your highest-impact threats.
Analogy🏏Cricket
🏏 Think of it like cricket: A batting coach who only reviews a batter's technique after a tournament has already ended. The batter has played 10 matches with a flawed grip — every run scored with bad technique is harder to unlearn than if the coach had corrected it in the first net session. Shifting security left is bringing the coach into the net sessions, not the post-tournament review.