Kim, Behr and Spafford “The Phoenix Project“ (★★★★★)

1 minute read

book cover Another possible approach is to create a story that mimics reality so that the reader can experiment with what happened to reach a given status. Instead of using the actual historical events, create new ones that are more suitable for a book and do not involve real characters or situations.

Books like the Phoenix Project use that approach. With an artificial history, they give context to the problems that DevOps solve while providing a theoretical introduction to the DevOps current environment. Another book with similar approach is P Lencioni “The Ideal Team Player”.

If the writing is good, this has the effect of reading a good novel. The story is engaging, and you feel hooked because you know that these problems are real, and maybe you have already experienced similar situations. I am not an expert in DevOps, but I did identify several characters with real persons in my career. Also, many conditions described in the book feel like some of my own experiences.

It is a fantastic book that could be nicely complemented with the sequel by the same author titled “The DevOps Handbook”. I plan to read it next year, and anyway, I’ll probably reread this one first at the beginning of 2022.

[1] The Phoenix Project on GoodReads