The Phoenix Project

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.

Reading this book felt like a dejavu. So many situations the authors describe have happened almost exactly as they describe them. We've made the same mistakes and hopefully have learned from them. It's very well written and relatable. Especially people who've not have worked for 20 years in the industry might find this an interesting read to possibly understand certain situations and avoid some of the mistakes we all use to make along our way.

Consider this book as an easy introduction to the value of DevOps in the “software eats everything” world we live in — a valuable read for those who are at organisations that use technology on a regular basis (pretty much everyone?) but don’t consider themselves as a primarily “technology company”. (Even though I understand the DevOps movement and principles, I did not know of its strong relationship to manufacturing processes. After reading this book, that makes so much more sense!)