The Phoenix Project

A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

Hardcover, 343 pages

English language

Published Jan. 20, 2013 by IT Revolution Press.

ISBN:
978-0-9882625-9-1
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
1001840470

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (98 reviews)

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.

13 editions

Not just for IT

4 stars

I don’t work in IT. I’m a data person leading a team at a large national political organization. But I was unloading all my problems (misunderstanding of data among org leaders, too many meetings, too much work, technical debt) to a technical mental of mine who insisted I pick up The Phoenix Project. While reading this book, I actively had to translate the IT jargon into something more relatable for my reference frame. Yet despite having no knowledge of IT or “DevOps” this book was a wealth of knowledge with tangible insights that I could take back to my team. I had many moments empathizing with Bill as he recovered from one crisis to another and battled various business and external challenges as well as “a-ha” moments as Bill learned to navigate his hectic workplace. Some of the books takeaways aren’t useful to me. Some I already knew. But if …

A good (though old) message wrapped in a bad novel

2 stars

As a novel, this is as bad as it gets. The dialog is awful, the plot is nonsensical, and the characters are like bizarre cardboard cutouts; totally one-dimensional, yet totally unrealistic.

The message that the book is trying to get across may have been more impactful in 2013, but it feels like ancient history now in 2023. There are better books about DevOps that don't spend hundreds of pages telling a hokey story about why it's important.

Review of 'The Phoenix Project' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Corporate fanfic where the Mary Sue uses the principles of DevOps to save the day. A relatively good intro to the underlying concepts though I found myself wanting a more formal text to accompany it. Which it turns out they wrote and is called "The DevOps Handbook", and the audible version includes the first few chapters, so guess what I'm reading next...

Review of 'The Phoenix Project' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I find it very compelling, really.
Yes, the style and the entire narrative are somewhat absurd and reads like a bad 3-dollar novel you buy at the gas station (the ghost writers did some lousy jobs at times, NO ONE talks like that).
But if you swallow it a couple of times, you won't get mad every time someone uses the agile manifesto's language as a common office language... well, you will be onto something.

It is my second time reading this, after I've got into the PO/PM world some things are still a mystery to me. As the projects I was involved in were of average sizes, I've never dealt with the whole spectrum which defines Product Management as a discipline.

Still, 2-3 jobs later some parts become crystal clear.

p.s.
for a moment I hated the main protagonist - he was moaning like a retard about him losing …

Review of 'The phoenix project' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I find it very compelling, really.
Yes, the style and the entire narrative are somewhat absurd and reads like a bad 3-dollar novel you buy at the gas station (the ghost writers did some lousy jobs at times, NO ONE talks like that).
But if you swallow it a couple of times, you won't get mad every time someone uses the agile manifesto's language as a common office language... well, you will be onto something.

It is my second time reading this, after I've got into the PO/PM world some things are still a mystery to me. As the projects I was involved in were of average sizes, I've never dealt with the whole spectrum which defines Product Management as a discipline.

Still, 2-3 jobs later some parts become crystal clear.

p.s.
for a moment I hated the main protagonist - he was moaning like a retard about him losing …

An IT tale that everyone in the industry can relate to

5 stars

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.

Review of 'The Phoenix Project' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

As a novel, this book is horrible. But it's probably the best management book I've read. Although I've been working with devops for years, this book is an invigorating boost and a reminder of why devops is so important and why I should continue to always advocate it for my clients.

At times the management lingo in the book just makes me giggle, especially how business terms are used unironically by the characters in everyday dialog. But that doesn't matter - I couldn't put this book down. Particularly the first third, where the old way of working and the all-too-familiar downward spiral is so precisely described, is fantastic. It's like a thriller set in my professional world.

This book was also a much-needed reminder for me, as a developer, not to forget the importance of IT ops. Not to fall into the thought trap of putting development at the top …

Review of 'The phoenix project' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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 …

Review of 'The Phoenix Project' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

DevOps is gradually explained through a story. What an exciting way to describe a technical concept!
While reading this book, I was able to get the ideas and apply them to a real-world problem in my company: setup a continuous pipeline for automated testing and deployment. Now the cycle lasts for the whole day long is cut down to less than 30 minutes.

Review of 'The Phoenix Project' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

On the first night, when I opened the book, it was 22:30. I stopped reading at 1:00. On the second and third night, the story repeated. Luckily, the weekend came and I managed to get back lost sleep.
When I say exciting I'm not joking: The main character gets a sudden promotion from IT manager to VP of IT Operations in a big company ($4 billion per year). What he doesn't know is that the whole IT organization is completely crippled and he got the job is to get it healthy again.
Having to manage severity one incidents, doing weekend long deployments, getting impossible constraints and requirements from business and security are just a few of the obstacles that he encounters in his new role.
Various IT problems keep on appearing in the first part of the book. After that, things start stabilizing and you are rewarded with a happy …

avatar for fatalicus

rated it

5 stars
avatar for mostlyharmlessz

rated it

5 stars
avatar for twhiston

rated it

4 stars
avatar for milsyobtaf

rated it

4 stars
avatar for ckochx

rated it

4 stars
avatar for pjmyburg

rated it

3 stars
avatar for mishari

rated it

5 stars
avatar for localstatic

rated it

4 stars
avatar for sethmdoty

rated it

4 stars
avatar for tehjer_

rated it

5 stars
avatar for emick

rated it

5 stars
avatar for sporiff

rated it

2 stars
avatar for fynh

rated it

4 stars
avatar for subvocal

rated it

4 stars
avatar for ianbishop

rated it

1 star
avatar for tali

rated it

4 stars
avatar for smcleod

rated it

5 stars
avatar for gagliardi_vale

rated it

3 stars
avatar for Griddle

rated it

4 stars
avatar for rgibert

rated it

3 stars
avatar for alexcurtin

rated it

5 stars
avatar for wafonso

rated it

3 stars
avatar for kbg

rated it

4 stars
avatar for kieranimo

rated it

5 stars
avatar for sturmer

rated it

3 stars
avatar for bwbeach

rated it

3 stars
avatar for Crepusculi

rated it

2 stars
avatar for Wyatt

rated it

2 stars
avatar for walker

rated it

5 stars
avatar for simme

rated it

5 stars
avatar for gabeguz

rated it

3 stars
avatar for AndrewO

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Mellowmike

rated it

5 stars
avatar for brstf

rated it

3 stars
avatar for spilliams

rated it

4 stars
avatar for facundo

rated it

3 stars
avatar for WarmRegards

rated it

2 stars
avatar for LRx

rated it

5 stars
avatar for sibbl

rated it

4 stars
avatar for anyonas

rated it

5 stars
avatar for nostalgia

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Jaldert

rated it

5 stars
avatar for NetCaptive

rated it

5 stars
avatar for bookelf

rated it

3 stars
avatar for piotr

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Bitboxer

rated it

5 stars
avatar for dankeller

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Barterer5072

rated it

4 stars
avatar for gregorygandy

rated it

4 stars
avatar for HokieGeek

rated it

5 stars
avatar for ion

rated it

4 stars
avatar for peter_hall

rated it

5 stars
avatar for grislyeye

rated it

3 stars
avatar for estranho

rated it

4 stars
avatar for BillieCodes

rated it

4 stars
avatar for seago

rated it

4 stars
avatar for mba

rated it

4 stars
avatar for adduc

rated it

5 stars
avatar for johnnycastrup

rated it

2 stars
avatar for jsq

rated it

3 stars
avatar for ward

rated it

4 stars
avatar for haploc-bwrm

rated it

5 stars
avatar for yepstepz

rated it

3 stars
avatar for niibek

rated it

5 stars
avatar for codejedi

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Nostradamnit

rated it

4 stars
avatar for dmathieu

rated it

5 stars
avatar for dean

rated it

3 stars
avatar for Janis

rated it

3 stars
avatar for psykon

rated it

3 stars
avatar for avid-reader

rated it

3 stars
avatar for niibek

rated it

5 stars

Subjects

  • Planning
  • Management
  • Knowledge management
  • Security measures
  • Information technology
  • Fiction

Lists