How China Agricultural Bank Achieved Leading Agile Development Maturity in 2023

Agile Development in China Agricultural Bank

Facing rapid market and technology changes, agile development is a key practice for efficient product development and high‑quality delivery. The 2022‑2025 Central Bank fintech plan also emphasizes agile‑guided, tool‑supported delivery processes.

GOPS 2023 Conference and Assessment Results

At the 21st GOPS Global Operations Conference (Shanghai, 26 Oct 2023), the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology announced the latest DevOps capability maturity assessment results. China Agricultural Bank’s two projects – “Data Middle‑Platform Portal” and “User Behavior Data Collection and Analysis Platform (Yinghuo)” – passed the Agile Development Management Level 3 assessment, reaching a domestic leading level.

Project Highlights

The Data Middle‑Platform Portal serves as the unified entry point of the bank’s new big‑data system, consolidating over 14,000 data assets and providing end‑to‑end services for data users, thereby enabling intelligent marketing, risk control, operations and decision‑making.

The “Yinghuo” platform collects multi‑channel user behavior data (Android, iOS, H5, mini‑programs, web) with plug‑and‑play services, handling billions of events daily and supporting real‑time, rich, intelligent analysis.

Interview Insights

Q: How does the bank feel about passing the Level 3 agile assessment? A (Zhao Yun‑dong): We are honored to be among the first enterprises to achieve Level 3. The assessment validated our close collaboration among business, product, development and testing, and gave concrete improvement suggestions.

Q: Why is a flexible agile R&D system important for the bank? A: Agile aligns with our digital transformation, boosting business response speed, increasing technology supply capacity through cloud‑based infrastructure and low‑code platforms, and enhancing value creation in high‑value business areas.

Q: What challenges were encountered during the assessment? A (Wang Zhen‑feng): Tight schedule, cross‑functional team coordination, building a project‑level measurement system, and interpreting standards for the banking domain were the main hurdles, all overcome through iterative planning and expert discussions.

Q: What concrete improvements resulted from the assessment? A: Delivery cycle reduced from ~20 days to less than half, defect‑fix time under one day, and user satisfaction exceeding 99 %.

Q: What are the next steps for agile development at the bank? A: Continue to deepen agile capabilities, refine the four‑layer support system (process, models, knowledge, tools), and pursue higher maturity levels.

DevOps Capability Maturity Model

The model, jointly developed by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, industry leaders and financial institutions, defines processes such as agile development management, continuous delivery, technical operation, DevSecOps, system and tool evaluation, and more. It has been adopted as a national standard and recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Industry Participation

As of 26 Oct 2023, six major state‑owned commercial banks have participated in the DevOps maturity assessments, with varying numbers of evaluated projects across continuous delivery, technical operation, and security levels.