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Kevin Behr

George Spafford

The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win Hardcover – Jan. 10 2013

by Gene Kim (Author), Kevin Behr (Author), George Spafford (Author)

9,455 ratings

Part of: The Phoenix Project (2 books)

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Bill is an IT manager at Parts Unlimited. It's Tuesday morning and on his drive into the office, Bill gets a call from the CEO.

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.

In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they'll never view IT the same way again.

Print length

345 pages
Language

English
Publisher

IT Revolution Press
Publication date

Jan. 10 2013
Dimensions

17.78 x 3.18 x 24.77 cm
ISBN-10

0988262592
ISBN-13

978-0988262591
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Product description

Review

"A must-read for anyone wanting to transform their IT to enable the business to win. Told through an absorbing story that is impossible to put down, the authors teach the essential lessons in an accessible way. Every business leader and IT professional should read this book!" -- Mike Orzen, co-author of the the Shingo Prize winning book Lean IT - Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation^"This book is a gripping read that captures brilliantly the dilemmas that face companies which depend on IT, and offers real-world solutions. As Deming reminds us, 'It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.' The Phoenix Project will have a profound effect on IT, just as Dr. Goldratt's book The Goal did for manufacturing." -- Jez Humble, co-author of the Jolt award-winning book Continuous Delivery and Principal at ThoughtWorks Studios^"This book is the modern day version of The Goal. Today, our constraints aren't robots inside our factories, but it's how we manage technologies like Tomcat and Java that power our most critical projects and applications. This book continues the journey that began with Shewhart, Deming, Ohno and Dr. Goldratt, and shows us how to diminish our modern constraints to help the business win." -- John Willis, VP Client Services and Enablement, enStratus, Host of "DevOps Cafe"^"This is the IT swamp draining manual for anyone who is neck deep in alligators." -- Adrian Cockcroft, Cloud Architect at Netflix
"This is the most amazing IT book I have ever read. Though it follows a fictitious company, the events are so real life that anyone in industry is going to relate to the story. Buy this book, read this book and then hand it to a senior manager in your organization." -- Stephen Northcutt, Fellow and President, SANS Technology Institute^"This insightful walk through the pain and success of business will trigger deja vu for anyone who has ever run afoul of their complete reliance in their IT organization. I see my own experiences in every stage of the story." -- Dr. Thomas Longstaff, Program Chair, Computer Science, Engineering for Professionals, The Johns Hopkins University^"A must-read for anyone wanting to transform their IT to enable the business to win. Told through an absorbing story that is impossible to put down, the authors teach the essential lessons in an accessible way. Every business leader and IT professional should read this book!" -- Mike Orzen, co-author of the the Shingo Prize winning book Lean IT - Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation^"This book is a gripping read that captures brilliantly the dilemmas that face companies which depend on IT, and offers real-world solutions. As Deming reminds us, 'It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.' The Phoenix Project will have a profound effect on IT, just as Dr. Goldratt's book The Goal did for manufacturing." -- Jez Humble, co-author of the Jolt award-winning book Continuous Delivery and Principal at ThoughtWorks Studios
^"This book is the modern day version of The Goal. Today, our constraints aren't robots inside our factories, but it's how we manage technologies like Tomcat and Java that power our most critical projects and applications. This book continues the journey that began with Shewhart, Deming, Ohno and Dr. Goldratt, and shows us how to diminish our modern constraints to help the business win." -- John Willis, VP Client Services and Enablement, enStratus, Host of "DevOps Cafe"
^"This is the IT swamp draining manual for anyone who is neck deep in alligators." -- Adrian Cockcroft, Cloud Architect at Netflix^"This is the most amazing IT book I have ever read. Though it follows a fictitious company, the events are so real life that anyone in industry is going to relate to the story. Buy this book, read this book and then hand it to a senior manager in your organization." -- Stephen Northcutt, Fellow and President, SANS Technology Institute^"This insightful walk through the pain and success of business will trigger deja vu for anyone who has ever run afoul of their complete reliance in their IT organization. I see my own experiences in every stage of the story." -- Dr. Thomas Longstaff, Program Chair, Computer Science, Engineering for Professionals, The Johns Hopkins University

About the Author

Gene Kim is a multiple award winning CTO, researcher and author. He was founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years and has worked with some of the top Internet companies on improving deployment flow and increasing the rigor around IT operational processes. In 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to the "40 Innovative IT People Under The Age Of 40" list, and was given the Outstanding Alumnus Award by the Department of Computer Sciences at Purdue University.
Kevin Behr is the founder of the Information Technology Process Institute (ITPI) and the Chief Strategist for the CIO and Board Advisory Practice at Assemblage Pointe, where Kevin has built a unique consulting practice that mentors and coaches IT organizations to increase their business effectiveness and competitive advantage now and over the long term through the application of improvement sciences.
George Spafford is a Research Director for Gartner covering process improvement in IT operations that leverage best practice references. He is a prolific author and speaker, and has consulted and conducted training on strategy, IT management, information security and overall service improvement in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and China.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ IT Revolution Press (Jan. 10 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 345 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0988262592
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0988262591
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 626 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.78 x 3.18 x 24.77 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #532,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #437 in PMP Exam
- #484 in Manager's Guides to Computing
- #517 in Production & Operations

Customer Reviews:
9,455 ratings

About the authors

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Kevin Behr
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Kevin Behr is the founder of the Information Technology Process Institute (ITPI) and the Chief Strategist for the CIO and Board Advisory Practice at Assemblage Pointe, where Kevin has built a unique consulting practice that mentors and coaches IT organizations to increase their business effectiveness and competitive advantage now and over the long term through the application of improvement sciences..
As a trusted mentor and advisor to chief executive officers and chief information officers around the world, Kevin blends his 25 years of IT management experience with his skills as a communicator, collaborator and synthesist to deliver powerful solutions to everyday business problems. He has held the post of CTO and CIO at companies ranging from public corporations to nimble technology start-ups. He is the author of several IT management books, including the exciting new business novel The Phoenix Project in tandem with the same author team as the bestselling Visible Ops Handbook, which he also coauthored with Gene Kim and George Spafford, and The Definitive Guide to IT Management, published by Hewlett Packard.
Kevin is a very popular keynote speaker and is frequently called on to address a broad range of technology and management topics by organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, Hewlett-Packard, the SANS Institute, AFCOM and The IT Service Management Forum.
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George Spafford
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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
George is a Research Director for Gartner covering process improvement in IT operations that leverage best practice references such as ITIL, COBIT, ISO/IEC 20000 and so forth. He is a prolific author and speaker, and has consulted and conducted training on strategy, IT management, information security and overall service improvement in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and China. His publications include co-authorship of “The Phoenix Project”, “The Visible Ops Handbook", “Visible Ops Security” and the IIA Information Security Governance guidance. His current areas of research include service design, complexity and operational processes.
See more on the author's page
Gene Kim
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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Gene Kim is a multiple award-winning CTO, researcher and author, and has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999. He was founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He has written six books, including The Unicorn Project (2019), The Phoenix Project (2013), The DevOps Handbook (2016), the Shingo Publication Award winning Accelerate (2018), and The Visible Ops Handbook (2004-2006) series. Since 2014, he has been the founder and organizer of the DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations.
In 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to the “40 Innovative IT People to Watch Under the Age of 40” list, and he was named a Computer Science Outstanding Alumnus by Purdue University for achievement and leadership in the profession.
He lives in Portland, OR, with his wife and family.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

9,455 global ratings

5 star		79%
4 star		16%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Mers

Best example of a DevOps needs

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

It is a must for someone that has not yet been in the bath of DevOps.

Helpful

Moe Sasseville

Probably the most important book I've read in years.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

The Phoenix project is one of those books that's easy to dismiss. Some of the plot points are showing their age, and the simplification of some of the aspects of the plot does make it feel a little dated especially during the first 50 or so pages...the way internal functioning and problems with certain decision loops are in many ways ageless.

The fact that well-meaning people keep breaking things for perfectly valid reasons is shown really well there. If only getting an organization to buy into this type of management/stucture/process was this easy though. I've been part of intiatives where we bashed out heads against the wall for months (Even with executive sponsorship) without moving the needle. With that in mind though, the impacts of implementing this type of tracking and rigor to your organization/group/initiative is critically important.

While this book was clearly written with IT leaders in mind, I would make this required reading for anyone that's involved in any aspect of IT projects and delivery. Heck, I'm primarily in sales, and this made me aware of ways that I could improve my cycles and how to discuss and help deliver projects to my clients.

Even if you don't believe in the methodology as outlined in the book, there's still a lot of good you can pull out of it.

The one downside of this book is that the way interpersonal relationships among the various characters are handled is just bad. All of these characters need to take some leadership and interpersonal dynamics courses...I could see how people in a real-world shop with similar dynamics would consider the environment toxic. It makes the quick buy-in and adoption of these programs all the more difficult, letting people slag each other openly in meetings with the VP not standing up for members of his team is just not a good way to get things going in business.

That's a minor nitpick in what is otherwise a great book with some truly great ideas as to how to identify, manage and resolve issues with IT teams and processes.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jeremy Wilkins

Best book I've read from an IT person perspective

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

While not the next Shakespeare or Michaelangelo, this nails it perfectly for anyone who is in IT/IS and has worked for that messed up organization that is making all the wrong decisions. Shows how to do it wrong in both people ops and IT and how to do it right. I would highly recommend this for anyone entering IT especially if you will be an executive in the organization.

Helpful

olaru victor

Must read for anyone.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Amazing book. Never thought that it is possible to teach project management, in such an exciting and productive way. It is a must read for developers, managers and business people.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

Reçu dans une grande boîte mélangé avec d'autre produit sans protection pour le livre. Heureusement il y a seulement le derrière du livre qui était plié un peu, mais ça s'est replacé en le mettant à plat.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 5, 2021

Verified Purchase

Fun book to read esp for someone who works in a I.T. industry.
Many cases are relatable to the real I.T. working environment. Stressful yet entertaining. This book helps you easily understanding the DevOps principles.

Helpful

Joshua A. Robinson

How IT should transform

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

A blue print to how you might do the same wrapped in an engaging story with common IT management pitfalls

Helpful

Canadian Tech

It's a great story that keeps you engaged then you learn something!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

Really well written book, more of a story form then a reference book. The story kept me engaged enough that I read this book front to back on my flight. If you are in IT (especially in a corporate environment) you can identify with this book and some of the challenges. Actually, I'd recommend any executive that has a working relationship with IT read this book as it might help them get an idea of some of the challenges that are faced.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

The Pheonix Project is an IT Fable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

The Pheonix Project is an IT Management Fable, the characters are for the most part extreme representations of concepts and people you interact with in business. The scenarios though are all too realistic, failing companies due to poor ability to respond to the voice of the customer, overrunning major projects with no end in sight, heroics all around, a failure to understand the voice of the business with security demands, audit requirements and processes that add hours, days and months to lead times, despair and frustration from all quarters and open hostility not just between IT and the rest of the business but an IT civil war too. Yes Bill is almost magical at seeing the problems, Steve changes from antagonist to mentor too easily, I've never seen a change manager as willing to adapt as Patty, so on and so forth, but a story bogged down in meetings wouldn't be of much interest. Oh and Eric. You'll never work with Eric, if you do, follow him everywhere.

With these realistic problems that no doubt face most of us the Pheonix Project lays out a number of tools and approaches that will lead the reader to think "damn, that's a good idea" or "that's an amazing way of looking at it". There's a moment in the book (I got it on kindle first, but now I have a physical copy that's getting the highlighter treatment) where one of the executives more or less goes "well dur well done you've figured it out" to which another goes, "well why didn't you think to explain this to everyone?" we often assume that the obvious is obvious to everyone, it's like a person watching poker on TV who can see everyone's cards going "well that outcome was obvious" clearly it wasn't to the people playing who couldn't see the cards.

All in all this book should be a must-read for everyone in IT or work with IT, it sets out the groundwork for implementing lean principles in IT and I wish I'd read it years ago. To be honest I think anyone with aspirations to help improve workflow through an organisation should read this, and the Goal and then sit down and think about the lessons presented within.

42 people found this helpful

Omur

The book is pretty much about my daily life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 21, 2018

Verified Purchase

I'm a Linux sysadm in an operations team. The book is pretty much about my daily life, all the struggles and problems. Half way through the book, I started considering leaving my job and open a kebab shop instead. Characters in the book are so real, I can see all of them Mon-Fri 9am-6pm!

I'm not depressed at all, no I'm fine. Really. Thanks. *inaudible weeping*

35 people found this helpful

Paul Mercer

Somewhat simplified view of Devops delivered as a novel, still a bloody good read though!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 16, 2019

Verified Purchase

The story takes place in a company besieged by the problems anyone in IT will be familiar with... Mismanaged projects, time and budget overruns, meddling managers with an inflated sense of self importance, arbitrary and un-achievable deadlines etc.

The story follows the life of the newly promoted IT Manager who is tasked with solving these problems and while tackling the issues he learns about DevOps. I found the book itself to be a very entertaining read and the concepts introduced both made sense withing the context of the story and reflect the real world issues a lot of us face as well.

The book does have a somewhat "accelerated" rate of adoption within the company, most real world scenarios would probably take considerably longer and be much more of a struggle with considerable more meeting - however I doubt many people who be enthralled by that. The story pacing certainly benefits from this approach.

The comparisons between IT and a typical manufacturing plant makes understanding the concepts underlying DevOps easier than speaking about them in the usual IT language.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who works in an IT / DevOps environment and wants an enjoyable read that also helps with the daily job.

13 people found this helpful

AnOldGoat

If you work in IT, read this.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

The really scary thing about this book is that I can recognise many of the characters, and probably name a few, from where I am!

From the frantic mess of the SAN upgrade (apparently) fighting the Payroll run in the opening section (we've all been there, done that, got the tee shirt <that is, if we are to be really honest with ourselves, folks, eh?>), to Brent and his knowledge of everything, with nothing documented.......

I grimaced at the developer who'd had to do a rushed change that broke, gone on holiday, and no-one knew. We all know that one.....

Its a gripping read, though understanding the mindset of Erik the guru is hard at times, and I'd have liked a little more domestic background.

6 people found this helpful

Amaz77919

Nothing new

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 9, 2022

Verified Purchase

The book explains concepts that are not new anymore and that many companies have adopted successfully through experimenting.
The story is boring and takes a big effort to finish it

3 people found this helpful

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Follow the Authors

The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win Hardcover – Jan. 10 2013

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Kevin Behr

George Spafford

Gene Kim

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