How China Agricultural Bank Reached Industry‑Leading DevOps and AIOps Maturity

Large enterprises have found that standardization and tool empowerment are key to success. The CAICT released the latest batch of DevOps and AIOps standard assessment results on December 26, 2022, highlighting the importance of evaluation‑driven improvement for digital transformation.

China Agricultural Bank (ABC) submitted nine system modules for evaluation under the R&D‑Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model , covering eleven assessment items. The bank successfully passed 17 DevOps standard assessments in total, including 12 for continuous delivery, 1 for application design, and 4 for security and risk management.

ABC also passed the Cloud Computing Intelligent Operations (AIOps) Capability Maturity Model assessment, demonstrating advanced intelligent operation capabilities.

Key Insights from the Q&A

Q: Please introduce your organization and the evaluated projects. Zhao Yun‑Dong explained that the R&D Center supports all banking lines and serves over 800 million customers, while Wang Li‑qiang highlighted the breadth of the evaluated projects.

ABC’s achievements include six projects passing the DevOps Continuous Delivery Level‑3 assessment, two projects passing DevSecOps Level‑2 (the first in the industry), one project achieving the highest level in application‑design assessment, and an AIOps tool‑capability assessment at the “excellent” level.

These results were achieved by integrating tools, processes, and standards to close the loop across requirement, design, development, testing, deployment, operation, and security.

Q: What motivated the selection of these standards? The bank began its DevOps journey in 2019, later expanding to DevSecOps, application‑design, and AIOps to meet regulatory security demands and improve delivery speed.

Q: What measurable improvements were observed? Operational analysis effort dropped from 2 person‑days to 0.5 person‑days, emergency decision data retrieval time fell from 10 minutes to 1 minute, and health‑risk inspections reduced from 1 person‑day to 5 minutes. High‑risk security vulnerabilities decreased by 42.7% year‑over‑year.

Q: What challenges were faced? Cross‑department coordination, tool‑chain localization, metric‑system construction, standard interpretation, and pandemic‑related remote work all posed difficulties, which were mitigated through flexible teams, regular meetings, and targeted problem‑solving.

Q: What are the next steps? ABC plans to adopt new standards such as agile management and continuous testing, deepen DevOps tooling and data visualization, cultivate internal DevOps talent, and continue driving digital transformation and fintech innovation.

State‑Owned Bank Participation Details

Data (as of December 26 2022) show the number of DevOps and AIOps assessments completed by major state‑owned banks, indicating industry‑wide adoption of the standards.

About the DevOps Capability Maturity Model

The R&D‑Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model was jointly developed by CAICT, the Cloud Computing Open‑Source Alliance, the Efficient Operations Community, BATJ, and leading financial, telecom, and internet companies. It is the most comprehensive and authoritative DevOps standard, recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and adopted by numerous enterprises.

The model covers process (agile development, continuous delivery, technical operation), application design, security & risk management, system & tool, business value management, collaborative development & operation, and continuous testing.

For more information or to inquire about DevOps standard assessments, contact CAICT (Liu Kaili) or the Efficient Operations Community (Wei Huanxin).