The Phoenix Project
A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
Ratings191
Average rating4.1
A great book on what could happen in a IT project from issues, challenges and conflicts and what you could experience
Far exceeded my expectations. Highly realistic and relatable. Easy to follow. So glad these lessons have been incorporated into the field already.
Using fables for non fiction doesn't always work out well, but this one is pretty good.
The Phoenix Project is one of the most interestingly written books in this genre I have ever read. It's not your typical software manager book full of dry advice, but instead follows Bill, who became a VP of IT Operations overnight and inherited a department in disarray. We follow the narrative o Bill through his eyes in a novel form. Not novel like new, but novel like, well, novel. It reads in a very different way, and so it also hits differently. It goes through all the problems you will encounter in IT (and others, I presume) departments throughout your career. Being surrounded by incompetent people, having one person who knows it all and nothing can happen without him, one team blaming the other for problems and vice versa, being over budget, missing the deadline, firefighting issues that pop up constantly,..., and how Bill would tackle them. Then you have a sage in Bob, who dealt with similar problems in a manufacturing environment and gives Bill hints on how the same ideas could work in IT.
The result is DevOps, which now became the de facto standard in the industry, especially in internet-based IT companies. I've never worked in a company where releases would be monthly or where I would need an ops person to do it. But the IT world is massive, and I'm sure many companies still haven't made this leap.
The book reminded me of several instances from my career, and I truly can not recommend it enough.
Bardzo sympatycznie napisane, świetnie się czyta. W 2021 roku trudno znaleźć tu jakieś nowe praktyki, ale książka nadal wypełnia dość ważną lukę - dlaczego niektóre niewdzięczne procesy są tak ważne i dlaczego warto je w organizacji mieć.
If you work with IT in any way this is a must read!
It's like an action thriller for IT. It does get a bit less exciting and more informative towards the end, but well worth it anyway!
This book terrified me and everyone on my team who read it after. We identified so many Brents in our business that we lost track. The story isn't the best written novel you'll read but if you're in any way in the software business you should stop what you're doing and read this now (unplanned work!)
The writing is sitcom bad. Bill, the main character, spouts off negative, derogatory stereotypes against some members of the IT profession that were off putting at best, and insulting at worst. Eric, Bill's mentor, is basically a jerk who enjoys the “game” of showing how much smarter he is than those around him.
Normally, in a novel this might be legitimate, but in this “teaching” story, it just undermines the actual point of the book. It's better than a textbook, but a lot of BS to wade through to get there, especially when the point of DevOps is to build bridges between operations/infrastructure and development, not burn them down.
It is a good book, but not a style I personally enjoyed - had to force myself to read the next chapter again and again.
Amazing how much I could relate with main characters, it helped a lot to see IT operations from a different angle.
An amazing novel about IT management and more generally all the non-manufacturing divisions of a modern company (Development, Product, Marketing, Sales, QA, Compliance...):
>> this book is totally digestible and you end up reading it like a breeze, passionated by the endeavours of the phoenix team.
>>The storytelling is a bit candid in the way the main character learn about the modern management theories through his “Sensei” but it helps the general understanding of those theories.
A great lecture that I would recommend to anyone who works with any kind of IT department/team.
Porn for MBAs.
The gruff-but-kind ex-Marine who is pushed into a VP of IT position, inheriting a trainwreck, then turns the organization (and the entire company!) around in less than three months by embracing DevOps. The inscrutable John Galt who swoops in on demand, Deus-ex-Machina style, gives 3-page speeches filled with Profound Management Wisdom then vanishes in a puff of smoke. The trusty lovable sidekicks who chime in at the right time with the right insights but otherwise just agree with Mr. Hero VP on everything. The sneaky traitor who works to undermine our hero but gets her comeuppance in the end. There's even the prim fussy security wonk who, halfway through, takes off his glasses and transforms into Sexy Librarian. No wait, I mean Chief Enthusiastic Acolyte Who Sees The Error Of His Past Ways. Dialog and character growth so fake you can almost hear the slap of the trowel laying it on thick.
That said: I enjoyed it. When it's not being preachy it's written in a way that demonstrates (by example) good communication habits, empathy, listening, decision-making, and a sprinkling of work/life balance. This adds credibility to the preachy parts, which really aren't that many anyway. It's a decent way to gain perspective on bad and good ways to run an organization. Plus, it's a fun read in a bubblegum sort of way.
The fact I read this business book in only 4 days should tell you a lot about this book. Using a fiction plot to narrate this Continuous Delivery improvement in a less than perfect IT environment is a great way to make the point.
A great read for anybody in IT or interested in CD