8.6 /10 1 Votes
4.5/5 Barnes & Noble Cover artist Joy Stauber Subject Internet Technology ISBN 978-0988262591 Page count 345 Country United States of America | 4.2/5 Goodreads Illustrator eboy Language English Pages 345 Originally published January 2013 Genre Fiction Preceded by Visible Ops Security | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Gene Kim books, Management books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win (2013) 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. The book was co-authored by Kevin Behr and George Spafford and published by IT Revolution Press in January 2013.
Contents
Background
The novel is thought of as the modern day version of The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. The novel describes the problems that almost every IT organization faces, and then shows the practices of how to solve the problems, improve the lives of those who work in IT and be recognized for helping the business win. The goal of the book is to show that a truly collaborative approach between IT and business is possible.
Synopsis
The novel tells the story of Bill, the IT manager at Parts Unlimited. The company’s new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill’s entire department will be outsourced. With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow, streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other business functions at Parts Unlimited.
Reception
The book has been called a "must read" for IT professionals and quickly reached #1 in its Amazon.com categories. The Phoenix Project was featured on 800 CEO Reads Top 25: What Corporate America Is Reading for June, 2013. InfoQ stated, "This book will resonate at one point or another with anyone who's ever worked in IT." Jeremiah Shirk, Integration & Infrastructure Manager at Kansas State University, said of the book: “Some books you give to friends, for the joy of sharing a great novel. Some books you recommend to your colleagues and employees, to create common ground. Some books you share with your boss, to plant the seeds of a big idea. The Phoenix Project is all three." Other reviewers were more skeptical, including the IT Skeptic "Fictionalising allows you to paint an idealised picture, and yet make it seem real, plausible... Sorry but it is all too good to be true... none of the answers are about people or culture or behaviour. They're about tools and techniques and processes." Jez Humble (author of Continuous Delivery) said "unlike real life, there aren’t many experiments in the book that end up making things worse..."