How China International Aviation Achieved Advanced DevOps Maturity Through Dual International and Domestic Standards

Background

On May 29, 2024, China's Cyberspace Administration, State Administration for Market Regulation, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Information Standard Construction Action Plan (2024‑2027) , emphasizing the internationalization of information standards and encouraging participation in ISO, IEC, ITU, and other bodies.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) launched a synchronized assessment based on ITU DevOps international standards and domestic DevOps standards, upgrading evaluation scope, certificates, and reports. This assessment aligns with the Action Plan and meets enterprise needs.

On June 27, 2025, at the 26th GOPS Global Operations Conference in Beijing, CAICT announced the results of the 33rd batch of dual ITU DevOps international and domestic standard assessments.

Case Study: China International Aviation

China International Aviation Corporation (Air China) participated with the project "New Retail Platform – Original Channel Refund System" and passed the CAICT DevOps Capability Maturity Model Continuous Delivery Level‑2 assessment, demonstrating advanced domestic DevOps capability.

Interview (Q&A)

Q: Please introduce your company and the project.

Air China, founded in 1988, is the sole civil airline flying the national flag, focusing on safe, efficient, intelligent air transport. The refund system supports multiple payment channels, manages code tables, refunds, approvals, breaks system silos, reduces manual effort, improves efficiency, and lowers service risk.

Q: How does the DevOps assessment benefit you?

The assessment guided standardization of development and delivery processes, enhanced team professionalism, optimized workflows, provided targeted feedback, boosted industry reputation, and improved collaboration and efficiency.

Q: Why did you join the DevOps assessment?

Key reasons: recognizing the importance of standardization for digital transformation, leveraging DevOps for quality and efficiency gains, and using the national assessment to validate and improve our DevOps capabilities.

Q: What challenges did you face and how were they solved?

Challenges included insufficient early understanding of DevOps standards and tool limitations. Solutions involved intensive training, expert guidance, and platform optimization.

Q: What are the future plans?

Continue deepening DevOps practice, expand to more projects, adopt emerging technologies like AI‑assisted code review, pursue BizDevOps and FinOps integration, and aim for Continuous Delivery Level‑3 assessment.

Technical Highlights

Designed a unified interface definition standard to handle numerous external system integrations, improving integration efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.

Implemented cloud‑native micro‑service architecture and agile methodologies (Scrum + CI/CD) for rapid iteration and value delivery.

Industry Statistics

As of June 27, 2025, the civil aviation industry has participated in multiple DevOps assessments, with data sourced from the official DevOps evaluation website.

References and Further Reading

For more information on ITU DevOps international standards, domestic DevOps standards, and the new CAICT SOMM operations maturity assessment, see the linked resources.