I bought this book as it was recommended by someone I trust.
My main disillusion comes from expecting a “DevOps novel” and finding a “people-processes-technology 101”. If you don’t know what I mean, this book is probably for you.
If the novel's timeframe were set in the late 90 or early 2000s it would be good educational book, but it’s missing 15 years of IT methodologies and practices. In case you may be working in an IT organisation which lives by past (or inexistent) IT practices, you’ll be probably nodding in every page. But believe me, the context set by this book is more than a decade away from today's best IT practices and I'm not just referring to startups or bleeding edge IT organisations like Google or Netflix. So if you are expecting to find a novel about how an organisation overcame their issues by following DevOps practices, this is not the book. By implementing agile metrologies? Yes it is.
On the other hand, as I novel, I think is pretty naive and shallow with an abuse of american culture elements to try to engage and sell the dream to the reader.
I would give it 2 stars because of the DevOps gimmick, but it does well explaining the gap between business and IT goals.
For the last time, you will find nothing about DevOps in this book.
PS: I pretty much agree with Richard Morgan review done in Amazon US site.


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The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win Hardcover – 10 January 2013
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Gene Kim
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Kevin Behr
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George Spafford
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Product details
- Publisher : IT Revolution Press; 1st edition (10 January 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 345 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0988262592
- ISBN-13 : 978-0988262591
- Dimensions : 17.78 x 3.18 x 24.77 cm
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4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
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Reviewed in Australia on 25 February 2017
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Reviewed in Australia on 5 August 2017
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Although the narrative style is a touch simplistic the underlying lessons and plot of this book should change the way an IT professional thinks about what IT is. I read the first half this book nodding, recognising myself, my colleagues, my organisation and my work environment. The examples used to illustrate the difficulties of a dysfunctional IT department and the reluctant business it supports could have been pulled from my own life. The second half of the book vividly demonstrated what is possible when you throw out your preconceived notions of how IT is supposed to look and redesign from the floor up.
Unfortunately it's only possible when you have visionary leaders with the talent, skills, experience and bravery of the characters in this novel. It should be required reading for every business manager.
Unfortunately it's only possible when you have visionary leaders with the talent, skills, experience and bravery of the characters in this novel. It should be required reading for every business manager.
Reviewed in Australia on 8 February 2020
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I read this book and I really liked it.
One of my friends used to tell me the book and at that time, I had no chance of reading it.
Recently, I read them and I started to buy more books relating to IT operation, development and etc.
It made me to think differently about the industry where I am working at right now.
This book is great and I highly recommend it for everyone.
One of my friends used to tell me the book and at that time, I had no chance of reading it.
Recently, I read them and I started to buy more books relating to IT operation, development and etc.
It made me to think differently about the industry where I am working at right now.
This book is great and I highly recommend it for everyone.
Reviewed in Australia on 24 April 2018
Verified Purchase
This book shows you a company that was living in the past and just with some changes to the way that people worked it turn the company from potentially collapsing into a successful company with unpredicted exponential growth.
I recommend this book to anyone who is new to i t or learning to become an IT manager.
I recommend this book to anyone who is new to i t or learning to become an IT manager.
Reviewed in Australia on 4 September 2014
Verified Purchase
The Phoenix Project is an engaging tale, at a reasonably quick pace that helps illustrate the DevOps mentality.
Something new to me, outside of my scope in IT (I'm in Education) the book gave me a great high level view of what DevOps is about, an insight into how large projects fail, and how this new lean and agile methodology with traditional boundaries removed can create a new optimised project delivery method, effective and not tied down with bureaucratic process.
Definately good food for thought and a book that I recommend to expand your horizons if you aren't in such a role, and don't need to know the minute detail I imagine required to actually make it work.
This isn't to say that there isn't references to materials that would be useful for those who want to learn in depth more about it... its just not included in this book.
Something new to me, outside of my scope in IT (I'm in Education) the book gave me a great high level view of what DevOps is about, an insight into how large projects fail, and how this new lean and agile methodology with traditional boundaries removed can create a new optimised project delivery method, effective and not tied down with bureaucratic process.
Definately good food for thought and a book that I recommend to expand your horizons if you aren't in such a role, and don't need to know the minute detail I imagine required to actually make it work.
This isn't to say that there isn't references to materials that would be useful for those who want to learn in depth more about it... its just not included in this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The plot is inevitably contrived to suit these outcomes but it was good enough to keep me reading to the end
Reviewed in Australia on 19 May 2016Verified Purchase
An interesting book that tries to explain the workings of a corporate IT department so non corporate IT can understand what happens and how people in IT think. It also introduces most of the relevant processes and trends in IT so works as a bit of a primer. The plot is inevitably contrived to suit these outcomes but it was good enough to keep me reading to the end. All I would ask for would be maybe a bit more humour al la "The Office" style.
Reviewed in Australia on 2 May 2020
Verified Purchase
Like the story telling
The super tribe
The embedment of it in the business
iT like electricity we need
Starting will business objectives
The super tribe
The embedment of it in the business
iT like electricity we need
Starting will business objectives
Reviewed in Australia on 6 February 2020
Verified Purchase
I really recommend this book for anyone who wants to know a bit more about "IT people specially devops. It was very fun to read and also you learn a few tricks.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Pheonix Project is an IT Fable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2017Verified 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.
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.
29 people found this helpful
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Paul Mercer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat simplified view of Devops delivered as a novel, still a bloody good read though!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 February 2019Verified 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.
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.
8 people found this helpful
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Omur
5.0 out of 5 stars
The book is pretty much about my daily life
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2018Verified 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*
I'm not depressed at all, no I'm fine. Really. Thanks. *inaudible weeping*
13 people found this helpful
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AnOldGoat
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you work in IT, read this.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 June 2020Verified 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.
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.
2 people found this helpful
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K. Hood
5.0 out of 5 stars
I never intended to read this book... and couldn't put it down - DevOps by working example
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 August 2017Verified Purchase
I never intended to read this book. I don't spend all weekend glued to a book about IT... but this gripped me from the blurb onwards, with relate-able events such as an overrunning project, whose scope increases exponentially, resignations, co-workers going AWOL, poisonous managers, human bottlenecks, under-investment, etc., And none of this explains why I had so many late nights, and my husband thought I was being as mad, as when I entered the cats in a cat show or took 6 kids on the coast-to-coast... It is a great evangelising tool for DevOps. It explains the concepts by using the Phoenix project as a working example, and you must read it (even if you think you know it all after 20+ years in web development).
5 people found this helpful
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