How Shenwan Hongyuan Reached Top Tier in China’s Continuous Testing Standard

As integrated R&D operations (DevOps) become widespread, testing is a key factor for improving quality. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s 14th‑Five‑Year plan emphasizes enhancing software quality management, monitoring, early warning, and evaluation, making test‑driven development a strategic priority.

On October 26, 2023, the 21st GOPS Global Operations Conference in Shanghai, co‑hosted by GreatOPS and DevOps Era Community, announced that the China Information and Communication Research Institute released the first batch of Continuous Testing (CT) assessment results.

Shenwan Hongyuan Securities participated with its Business Mid‑Platform Project and passed the CT Standard Level 3 evaluation, indicating a domestically leading capability in continuous testing.

To date, Shenwan Hongyuan has passed two DevSecOps assessments, one continuous testing assessment, and one continuous delivery assessment, all from a single business system.

Interview Highlights

Q: Please introduce your company and the project.

A (Kang Lan): Shenwan Hongyuan, formed by the merger of China’s first joint‑stock securities firms, operates nationwide and internationally, focusing on profitability, professional services, and responsibility. The Business Mid‑Platform, a micro‑service‑based self‑developed system launched in 2018, now serves over 100 systems with 3,000+ APIs, handling 10 million daily visits and supporting digital transformation.

Q: How does achieving Level 3 feel?

A: We are delighted; the assessment validates our agile delivery core capabilities and DevOps digital‑R&D achievements, strengthening the foundation for an integrated development platform.

Q: What challenges did you face during the assessment?

A: Tight schedules and high demand required integrating improvement tasks into regular iterations, reallocating resources, and receiving strong leadership support to meet multiple standards simultaneously.

Q: Why is a continuous testing system across the software lifecycle important?

A (Wang Jiahua): Continuous testing creates an end‑to‑end loop from requirements to operations, demanding universal testing skills, risk management, and lifecycle metrics, thereby enhancing product quality and driving organizational evolution.

Q: Why did you choose to participate in this assessment?

A: After passing DevSecOps and continuous delivery assessments, we needed a standard to validate and improve our testing capabilities, using the evaluation to adopt industry‑leading methods and tools.

Q: What successes can you share about implementing continuous testing?

A: The system integrates with DevOps tools, starting with pilot projects and expanding company‑wide, improving automation coverage and quality metrics.

Q: What are your future plans for continuous testing?

A: We will localize DevOps standards, enhance the tool platform, promote broader adoption, and align with our 14th‑Five‑Year fintech roadmap to support business, development, and operations.

Q: What impact has the continuous testing assessment had on the team?

A (Bian Fengjie): The practice saves about six person‑days per release, reduces defects to 30% of previous levels, and lowers missed defects below 0.1%, with plans to roll out across 30+ mid‑platform projects.

Q: How does the assessment improve the project?

A: It enhances requirement review, testing management, quality control, and continuous improvement, introducing metrics like engineer profiling and better automation coverage.

Industry Participation Details

Statistics (as of October 26, 2023) show the number of securities and fund companies that have undergone DevOps maturity assessments, including levels for continuous delivery, technical operations, security, and testing.

DevOps Capability Maturity Model

The DevOps maturity model, led by the China Information and Communication Research Institute with contributions from major internet, finance, and telecom firms, is the first comprehensive domestic DevOps standard, recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and adopted by many enterprises. It covers processes (agile management, continuous delivery, technical operations), application design, DevSecOps, systems and tools, business value management, collaborative development‑operations, continuous testing, performance measurement, platform engineering, and SRE.