How China Pacific Insurance Achieved Industry-Leading DevOps Maturity

Large enterprises worldwide have proven that standardization and tool empowerment are key to success. The DevOps standards and a standards‑based continuous delivery pipeline platform can significantly improve quality, efficiency, safety, and agility, enhancing market competitiveness.

On June 29, 2023, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) announced the latest batch of DevOps standard assessment results.

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. ("China Taibao") had four projects pass the CAICT "R&D‑Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model – Part 3: Continuous Delivery" Level 3 assessment.

Q: Please introduce yourself, your company, and the projects involved in the assessment.

A: China Pacific Insurance, founded in 1991, is a leading comprehensive insurance group and the first A+H+G listed insurer. It emphasizes technology empowerment for high‑quality development, building a cloud‑native system where DevOps is a core component of digital transformation. Four projects—an e‑commerce platform, a unified life‑insurance underwriting platform, an online health‑insurance system, and a pension fund document‑sorting project—successfully passed the Level 3 continuous‑delivery assessment.

Q: How do you feel about passing the DevOps standard assessment?

A: We are delighted that all four projects passed, reflecting breakthroughs in process organization, team collaboration, tool integration, development metrics, and delivery. The enterprise‑wide DevOps pipeline has greatly improved software delivery efficiency and accelerated digital transformation.

Q: Why did you decide to join the DevOps standard assessment?

A: Although we adopted agile practices since 2013, fragmented processes and isolated tools hindered digital transformation. The CAICT DevOps maturity model’s continuous‑delivery focus matched our needs, leading us to use the assessment as a pilot to accumulate experience, define standards, optimize processes, and integrate tools.

Q: What benefits has the assessment brought to your enterprise and teams?

A: Project delivery efficiency improved dramatically, and teams gained a complete understanding of DevOps methods, theory, and tools. Enterprise‑level standards and an integrated tool platform enabled end‑to‑end automated, standardized, and digitalized delivery, boosting collaboration efficiency and quality.

Q: Was the assessment process smooth? What challenges did you face?

A: The four projects were evaluated simultaneously under coordinated management. Challenges included high business demand with tight delivery schedules and extensive platform‑tool requirements across multiple subsidiaries. Through careful planning, prioritization, and intensive effort, we delivered a robust, high‑performance DevOps platform.

Q: Please describe your DevOps platform.

A: Our platform follows the CAICT DevOps maturity model, providing an end‑to‑end, process‑driven toolchain that connects requirement, design, development, testing, deployment, and operations. It supports nine pipelines, automated testing integration, multi‑tenant architecture, and seamless operation across three heterogeneous clouds, markedly improving delivery efficiency and quality.

Q: What is the biggest takeaway from this year’s DevOps implementation, and what are your next steps?

A: Achieving Level 3 continuous‑delivery across all four projects demonstrates industry‑leading DevOps capability. We will refine the DevOps capability framework, expand promotion across the group, train teams on the integrated platform, and continue automating, measuring, and visualizing development processes.

Q: How do you view the future of DevOps?

A: DevOps will continue to grow as enterprises demand agile development, continuous integration, and rapid delivery. With the rise of cloud computing, containerization, AI, and IoT, DevOps will remain essential for innovation and competitive advantage.

The article also includes statistics on insurance industry participation in DevOps assessments (data as of June 29 2023) and an overview of the "R&D‑Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model" developed by CAICT and industry partners, which has become the first international DevOps standard recognized by ITU‑T.