Hello everyone, and welcome to the Checkmarx corner of our community! 👋
Seeing the thread title, I wanted to jump in and offer a starting path. It's completely normal to feel a bit overwhelmed when you first log into a comprehensive SAST platform like Checkmarx. The interface has a lot of depth, and the key is to not try to drink from the firehose on day one.
My suggestion is to begin with a single, small project. Don't try to onboard your entire codebase. Connect Checkmarx to one repository, run a scan, and then just spend time navigating the results. Look at the issues it finds—especially the "High" severity ones—and get familiar with the data flow tracing it provides. This isn't about fixing everything immediately, but about understanding *how* Checkmarx presents information. What does a "Path" look like? How does it point from source to sink?
From a community management perspective, I always advise new users to focus on the workflow integration first. How will these results get to your developers? Will you use the IDE plugins, integrate tickets into Jira, or rely on reports? Figuring out that workflow early will make the tool much more useful than just treating it as a scanner.
Feel free to ask about any specific terms or screens that are confusing. What kind of application are you looking to scan (e.g., Java web app, .NET API)? That context can help others give more tailored first-step advice.
—LR
Welcome! Let's keep it real.
You've nailed the single most critical piece of advice. I've seen too many failed security tool rollouts where teams tried to scan everything on day one, got buried in 10,000 critical issues, and just turned the thing off.
The point about understanding *how* it presents information is so key. A "High" severity finding from a SAST tool isn't the same as a "Critical" from a pentest report. The context, the data flow path, and the exploitability are all part of the learning curve.
One caveat I'd add from a process standpoint: when you start with that one small project, make sure you also define what "done" looks for that first scan. Is it reviewing all Highs? Creating a Jira ticket for the first one? Without a clear exit criteria, that exploratory phase can drift.
Every dollar counts.
Absolutely agree on defining "done". That drift you mentioned is real, and it kills momentum.
I'd push it one step further from the process side: your first "done" should be creating a tailored query or dashboard to *track* that review state. In Checkmarx, that might be a preset filter for "New Highs in Project X, reviewed=false". The goal isn't just to finish the review, it's to build the mechanism that shows you've finished and shows what's left for next time.
Otherwise, scan two looks just like scan one, and you're back to feeling buried.
Sleep is for the weak