Project Management Practices in iQIYI Literature Vertical: Agile Process, Planning, and CI/CD

Author Introduction : Buaabull works in iQIYI Technology Product Center PMO, previously at Sony Mobile and other foreign enterprises. He has experience in development, technical management, and project management, covering smart hardware, mobile communications, internet frontier technologies, software architecture, and project management. Currently focuses on agile process improvement and continuous integration.

Literature Vertical Overview : iQIYI Literature belongs to the vertical business line under the company’s strategy of building a pan‑entertainment portal and creating premium IP. Leveraging the core video platform, it has grown rapidly alongside movie tickets, comics, etc., forming a rich ecosystem.

The vertical behaves like an internal incubator project: it relies on the baseline platform for traffic but has distinct product forms and business models. Early stages often face frequent direction adjustments, resource shortages, and cross‑department coordination difficulties.

To cope, the team emphasizes autonomy and flexibility, forming a small,精兵 team that iterates quickly and focuses on key breakthroughs.

The author shares several project‑management practices drawn from work on the literature vertical.

Project Management Mode – Process Refinement and Evolution

The core workflow is simplified to four stages: Review → Scheduling → Development → Release .

Review Phase : Formal review and change‑control processes are the core. Depending on the size and complexity of requirements, UI and technical pre‑reviews are arranged to improve efficiency, quality, and accuracy.

Scheduling Phase : Rough scheduling compares available resources with candidate workload to ensure core requirements and iteration milestones. Detailed scheduling clarifies testing points and optimizes test‑resource utilization.

Development & Testing Phase : Strict entry criteria for testing and a code‑change review process during integration testing ensure development quality and project controllability.

Release Phase : Responsibility‑based acceptance and approval are enforced, standardizing the launch process to achieve a concise, stable, and responsive release workflow.

Process details are dynamically adjusted as the team grows:

In the early stage, focus on on‑time delivery and strict testing quality.

During rapid expansion, streamline cross‑functional hand‑offs to keep information flowing smoothly.

In the stable stage, optimize non‑critical approval steps to accelerate response.

Because the vertical is tightly coupled with the baseline, project plans must closely monitor coupling points to avoid post‑release incidents.

Coupling Points Table (summary) :

Requirement : Various traffic entry points (e.g., Lehuo entrance, registration, IP linking). Coordination needed during baseline requirement windows.

Technical : Shared components such as Android allclass/Corejar/pingback and iOS registration modules. Technical direct‑connect interfaces must be established and aligned with baseline releases.

Project : Baseline testing, gray release, and major milestones. Coupling points require close monitoring and early planning.

Internal Skill Development – CI/CD Practices

Development integration adopts a branch isolation strategy: main, development, and release branches are separated to serve development, testing, and packaging needs. The main branch builds daily packages to support parallel development and testing. Development branches enforce strict code review and test entry criteria to maintain integration quality. During integration testing, the release branch is locked to isolate the next iteration.

Rapid release cycles and frequent product iterations increase technical debt risk. Therefore, long‑term technical architecture optimization is planned alongside near‑term product demands, balancing resources for sustainable growth.

Planning Cycles :

Quarterly Plan : Long‑duration, high‑complexity tasks such as infrastructure optimization and core service refactoring, driven by the backend team.

Monthly Plan : Tasks tightly coupled with upcoming releases, coordinated per iteration.

Weekly Plan : Prioritized based on online incidents, product demands, and optimization tasks, coordinated by project and business lines.

Effect : The agile, efficient development model has propelled the literature vertical to rapid growth within two years, establishing it as a recognized brand in the industry.

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