Understanding China’s First DevOps Capability Maturity Model and Evaluation Process

Standardization and process are the foundation of operations management; thorough standard unification and accelerated automation are essential to minimize human error, reduce labor costs, and improve operational efficiency and quality.

The world’s first DevOps standard, the "Research and Development Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model," was led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) together with the Cloud Computing Open Source Industry Alliance, Efficient Operations Community, DevOps Era Community, BATJ, Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, and top enterprises from communications and finance sectors. The standard has been officially concluded by the ITU‑T, a United Nations standardization body.

1. About the DevOps Capability Maturity Model Assessment

The series of standards for the "Research and Development Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model" were jointly created by CAICT, the Cloud Computing Open Source Industry Alliance, Efficient Operations Community, BATJ, and leading internet, financial, and communications companies. The model comprises eight parts: overall architecture, agile development management, continuous delivery, technical operations, application design, security and risk management, assessment methods, and systems & tools. These standards are crucial for upgrading organizational R&D operations capability, enhancing productivity, improving software and service quality, measuring operational maturity, clarifying improvement directions, and providing data‑driven decision support. Currently, the system and tools component of the DevOps process can be formally evaluated.

About System and Tools

The "DevOps Capability Maturity Model Part 8: System and Tool Technical Requirements" provides evaluation and guidance for implementing relevant systems, tools, and services. It covers project and development management, application design and development, continuous delivery, test management, automated testing, and technical operations. Its technical requirements connect the end‑to‑end software delivery lifecycle via a toolchain, creating a streamlined, integrated DevOps toolchain. Evaluation of continuous delivery, test management, automated testing, and technical operations has now officially started.

2. DevOps Standard Evaluation

The "DevOps Capability Maturity Assessment" helps enterprises improve IT efficiency by unifying requirements, development, testing, deployment, and operations, fostering agile development, continuous delivery, and seamless application operation while ensuring stability and rapid delivery of high‑quality software and services. The assessment follows principles of fairness, impartiality, and voluntariness.

Expert panel: Typically 3‑5 experts from CAICT and certified DevOps assessors.

Review panel: After assessment, a review meeting with experts from enterprises that have passed the DevOps assessment evaluates the results.

3. Evaluation Process

First batch system and tool evaluation registration information:

Registration period: From now until August 31 (excluding national holidays).

Evaluation scope: Targeted at users of IT software R&D delivery operations.

Evaluation time: Early September for the first batch.

Result announcement: Results will be published and certificates awarded.

Registration format: Enterprises may apply for one or multiple modules of Part 8: System and Tool Technical Requirements.

For inquiries about the DevOps standard system and tool evaluation, please contact:

CAICT – Liu Kailin, Phone: 156 5078 6171 (WeChat same), Email: [email protected]

Efficient Operations Community – Yang Donghui, Phone: 185 1511 5139 (WeChat same), Email: [email protected]