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.
It’s a good way to introduce business and DevOps concepts to folks new to them from either direction. My biggest complaint is that in service of that mission, the storytelling plays out somewhere between a bad case of “plot armor” and “wish fulfillment”.
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 …
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 anything I felt seen — knowing that others deal with what I deal with, across industries, was enough for me
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.
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.
