Hardcover, 343 pages
English language
Published Jan. 20, 2013 by IT Revolution Press.
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win is the third book by Gene Kim. The business novel tells the story of an IT manager who has ninety days to rescue an over-budget and late IT initiative, code-named The Phoenix Project.
It’s a good way to introduce business and DevOps concepts to folks new to them from either direction. My biggest complaint is that in service of that mission, the storytelling plays out somewhere between a bad case of “plot armor” and “wish fulfillment”.
One step above the typical corporate training video; sort of a casual primer on lean thinking and DevOps. Michael Crichton would’ve made it a lot more interesting.
It is a good book, fun to read, although the middle part (the one with all the theory) drags a little bit. It has become a little dated (it’s 2021 now and skepticism around cloud computing is a little odd), but it pays a good homage to The Goal, whose readers may find the theory somehow repetitive. Despite all this, it’s a captivating story (I’ve read it in 5 days) and worth reading if you are not very familiar with DevOps and want to know what this is all about.
Reading this book felt like a dejavu. So many situations the authors describe have happened almost exactly as they describe them. We've made the same mistakes and hopefully have learned from them. It's very well written and relatable. Especially people who've not have worked for 20 years in the industry might find this an interesting read to possibly understand certain situations and avoid some of the mistakes we all use to make along our way.
The Phoenix Project is a seminal read on the accumulation of thoughts and processes surrounding DevOps as we know it today. The story is a fictional take on a workplace that is rife with unplanned work and misuse of the process. You might find it similar to something you see in your organization. It has some great insights and relevant stories you can apply to your own practices. In 2020, these things should be less and less relevant, but in fact, they seem to be more relevant than ever with COVID-19 and companies shifting more and more to the cloud with their digital transformation, demanding quicker time to market, just like Parts Unlimited in the book. The characters used in the book are great, and the protagonist gets the shake at the end. I can't help but think one of the characters, Wes, is a bit over the top. To …
The Phoenix Project is a seminal read on the accumulation of thoughts and processes surrounding DevOps as we know it today. The story is a fictional take on a workplace that is rife with unplanned work and misuse of the process. You might find it similar to something you see in your organization. It has some great insights and relevant stories you can apply to your own practices. In 2020, these things should be less and less relevant, but in fact, they seem to be more relevant than ever with COVID-19 and companies shifting more and more to the cloud with their digital transformation, demanding quicker time to market, just like Parts Unlimited in the book. The characters used in the book are great, and the protagonist gets the shake at the end. I can't help but think one of the characters, Wes, is a bit over the top. To summarize, it's a great read on how you and your organization can start thinking about bringing Development and Operations people closer together and get their decisions aligned, ultimately leading to more quality output and faster.
