How Ping An Bank’s Starlink Platform Achieved DevOps Standard Certification

On September 25, 2020, the 14th GOPS Global Operations Conference in Shenzhen announced the first batch of DevOps standard system and tool assessment results, with Ping An Bank’s Starlink development‑operations integration platform passing the CAICT’s "Research and Development Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model" assessment for the build and continuous integration module.

Interview with Ping An Bank’s Chief Architect Huang Weiqi and Starlink Product Lead Jin Yan

Q: Please introduce your company and the project evaluated.

A: Ping An Bank is pursuing a "digital bank, ecosystem bank, platform bank" strategy. Starlink is the strategic product supporting this digital transformation, built on lean and agile principles to provide a full‑process toolchain that visualizes value flow from idea generation to requirement design, development, testing, release, operation, and feedback, while integrating security SDLC and EPG management baselines.

Q: What does passing the DevOps standard assessment mean for you?

A: The assessment, based on the world’s first DevOps international standard released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, validated our platform’s capabilities, boosted its reputation, and motivated continuous improvement and innovation.

Q: How important is an end‑to‑end toolchain for DevOps adoption?

A: The toolchain breaks departmental silos, visualizes work, eliminates waste, and provides developers with consistent, easy‑to‑use tools for rapid feedback, making it the starting point of DevOps transformation.

Q: What impact has the assessment had on your team?

A: Recognition from CAICT increased Starlink’s visibility, enhanced team confidence, and confirmed that we are on the right path, encouraging us to keep advancing.

Q: What measurable improvements have you observed?

A: After adopting Starlink, pipeline build time dropped by 46%, demand‑to‑delivery cycle reduced from 36.2 to 14.25 days (60% decrease), automation test coverage rose 33.1%, defect rework fell 42.5%, and post‑production incident tickets fell 51.3%.

Q: What are the key features of Starlink?

A: It serves over 16 banking business teams (8,000+ users), integrates the entire application lifecycle, automates cross‑toolchain processes, and provides an open platform that aggregates internal tools, fostering a healthy tooling ecosystem.

Q: What challenges did you face during the assessment?

A: Some capabilities such as compatibility and usability needed enhancement before the formal evaluation, prompting additional testing and resource investment.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: We will scale Starlink to more business teams, deepen automation (AutoOps) and security (DevSecOps), leverage AI for AIOps insights, and extend the platform with PaaS/IaaS capabilities using cloud, micro‑services, and container technologies.

DevOps Capability Maturity Model

The model, jointly developed by CAICT, the Cloud Computing Open Source Industry Alliance, GreatOPS, BATJ and leading enterprises, is the first global DevOps series standard, covering agile management, continuous delivery, technical operation, application design, security, risk management, and system‑tool aspects.