IDCF Phase 5 DevOps Case Study: Traditional Banking Practice and Lessons Learned

The IDCF Phase 5 DevOps case study focused on traditional banking and was carried out by an 11‑member cross‑functional team (business, consulting, R&D, quality, agile coaching, PMO) over one month, delivering a comprehensive PPT report, a 1.5‑hour live stream, and a public article.

The team followed four core principles: A – non‑judgmental, divergent idea generation; B – convergent discussion to form collective conclusions; C – timely correction to keep divergence and focus balanced; D – engaging incentives to boost participation.

The workflow was divided into six main stages: 1) Team Formation & Kickoff – establishing iteration cadence, Scrum Master rotation, and communication tools; 2) Planning & Implementation – defining iteration goals, DoR/DoD, and deliverables; 3) Monitoring & Change – tracking progress, addressing scope drift, and incorporating mentor feedback; 4) Evaluation & Retrospective – assessing Scrum Masters and summarizing outcomes; 5) Principle C Application – bridging divergence and convergence to maintain focus; 6) Additional Practices – weekly expert sessions with banks and consultants, and a round‑table on Bank 4.0, digital transformation, AI, blockchain, and IoT.

During the first iteration the team collected 41 research‑direction suggestions from 10 members, narrowed them to six major topics covering major Chinese banks (Bank of China, Agricultural Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank, Construction Bank, Transportation Bank, CITIC, HSBC, Ping An, plus city‑bank examples), and gathered 67 reference articles, which were filtered to build a detailed research framework.

The case study earned the "Best Case Study" award, and the final deliverables included a detailed analysis of traditional banking processes, a discussion of Bank 4.0 trends, and a QR‑code link to the video replay of the session.