Coverage: The Twelve-Factor Methodology¶
Source: https://www.12factor.net/ Mapped against spec version: 0.3.0 Last reviewed: 2026-07-18
The assessment covers 5 of the 12 factors in full, 6 partially, and 1 not at all. The structural difference matters more here than with checklist-style frameworks: 12-Factor prescribes a specific application architecture (how a SaaS app should be built and deployed), while this assessment evaluates team and project maturity. Where 12-Factor mandates a mechanism (stateless processes, port binding), we assess the outcome it serves (scalability, clean interfaces) without prescribing the mechanism — so several "Partial" verdicts are a difference of altitude, not a blind spot.
| # | Factor | Our item(s) | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Codebase — one codebase in revision control, many deploys | 5.1 Version Control System | ✅ Full |
| II | Dependencies — explicitly declare and isolate | 4.7 Package Management | ✅ Full |
| III | Config — store config in the environment | 6.5 Credentials, 5.8 Multiple Environments | ⚠️ Partial |
| IV | Backing services — treat as attached resources | 3.8 APIs & Integrations, 3.4 Loose Coupling / High Cohesion | ⚠️ Partial |
| V | Build, release, run — strictly separate stages | 5.4 Project Build, 5.9 Release Management Process, 5.13 CI/CD | ✅ Full |
| VI | Processes — execute as stateless processes | 3.3 Architecture Patterns, 3.5 Scalability & Performance | ⚠️ Partial |
| VII | Port binding — export services via port binding | — | ❌ Not covered (deliberate) |
| VIII | Concurrency — scale out via the process model | 3.5 Scalability & Performance | ⚠️ Partial |
| IX | Disposability — fast startup, graceful shutdown | 3.6 Resilience & Fault Tolerance, 5.10 Recovery Plan | ⚠️ Partial |
| X | Dev/prod parity — keep environments similar | 5.8 Multiple Environments | ✅ Full |
| XI | Logs — treat logs as event streams | 5.11 Observability | ✅ Full (modernized) |
| XII | Admin processes — run admin tasks as one-off processes | 5.6 Automation, 3.7 Data Architecture (migrations) | ⚠️ Partial |
Notes on modernized coverage¶
- XI Logs. 12-Factor's "logs as event streams" grew into the broader observability practice (structured logging, tracing, dashboards) that 5.11 assesses directly.
Notes on partial and missing coverage¶
- III Config. 6.5 catches the worst failure (secrets in code) and 5.8 covers environment separation, but no question asks how non-secret configuration is managed and injected per environment. Genuine gap; candidate question for 5.8 in a future MINOR release.
- IV Backing services. 3.8 assesses external contracts and 3.4 assesses coupling, but the specific discipline — swapping a backing service without code changes — is not probed.
- VI Processes / VIII Concurrency. 3.5 asks what breaks as traffic doubles and whether scaling is understood, which surfaces state-in-process problems indirectly; the statelessness and process-model prescriptions themselves are architecture choices we deliberately don't mandate.
- VII Port binding. The most implementation-specific factor; irrelevant to many stacks (mobile, embedded, serverless). Deliberately not covered — an assessment that stays architecture-agnostic cannot mandate it.
- IX Disposability. 3.6 covers graceful degradation and retries and 5.10 covers recovery, but startup/shutdown behavior (crash-only design, clean drain on deploy) is not asked. Reasonable candidate question for 3.6.
- XII Admin processes. 5.6 assesses automation of manual work and 3.7 covers migrations, but the one-off-task discipline (run in identical environment, tracked, repeatable) is not asked explicitly.