The Phoenix Project

Better than I thought

I am not an IT guy but a blue collar worker. There is a lot of understanding of processes that translate to everything in the business field.

I would recommend this to everyone who is in any business. It gives good examples of work and problem solving.

Take a chance and listen to, or read this book

Theory and Practice merged

Any additional comments?

I honestly didn't know a book like this could exist. The format really took me by surprise, but luckily, it was a pleasant one. Essentially it follows a newly promoted IT operations manager as he tries to improve the way the IT department works in his company while struggling with all the bureaucratic challenges that come with higher management positions. The really interesting part though, is that the book goes through a lot of sound theoretical concepts and we see how they're applied practically in the business.

It's still more of a novel in that it has a story and interesting characters that you see grow, which really are the driving force behind this book. The story and setting are relatively basic, but that's actually perfect since it's easier to relate to when there's all the theoretical content to get your head around. It's hard to be too critical of the characters, since again, they're mostly there to make a point and generalize the type of people that you encounter in organizations. That being said, there were some characters and events that were a little too unbelievable, which often broke the sense of realism and made you realize that you're reading a fictional story.

This kind of book would be a great source for students to study from since rarely have I seen theory and practice so closely linked in a book. Usually it's a ton of theory pushed down your throat with a sprinkling of real world examples thrown in. There's definitely some leaps and issues that would have to be addressed, but if anything, that would make it more interesting to disseminate. I'm just a bit worried now that someone reading this thinks they can turn their whole company around in three months.

Wonderful!

If you work in IT, you MUST read this book! It will save your sanity! Having been in IT for my entire career, it hits closer to home than anything I've read before. It's like "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt for IT!

I have no idea why I liked it.

I am not in business or IT. this couldn't be further from my field or life. but still, somehow the story was compelling enough that I read it for the pure entertainment and really enjoyed it.

Must read for IT professionals

The story line in this book has been repeated thousands of time in many organizations around the world. One of the best books I have read on understanding the importance of understanding your resource constraints and how they impact your whole organization from IT to business functions. Gaining alignment and focus on the right projects is the key to driving your business forward. Book also highlights a lot of Agile principals as well. Good read. Easy to relate to the theme of the book.

The most gripping novel I have read in a long time

I have been in the help desk, I have been in IT management, I have been in the upper echelons of management and business ownership.
The ideas put forth in this book are groundbreaking for today's economy and will be the groundwork for the highly agile businesses of the 21st Century.
If you want to make progress in your Enterprise and you are getting blowback from your managers, give them this book.

This is my organization

We had a “Phoenix project” that went horribly wrong and cost a considerable amount of time, money and effort (much of it heroic) to recover. We learned a little of what is in this book. Had we known about these processes before we may have avoided at least some of the cost. As the saying goes “there’s never enough money to do it right the first time, but there’s always enough to fix/do it right the second time” - and sadly so.

I was surprised at how much I liked this book!

At first, I wasn't sure if I would like this book; however, I was quickly hooked. I highly recommend this book to anyone even if they're not Techie. I'm looking forward to acquiring "Beyond The Phoenix Project" and some of the other books that are mentioned in this work. I'm grateful to Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford for this great work; I'm also looking forward to listing to other Audible books narrated by Chris Ruen who made this audiobook so enjoyable. I'm really glad that my friend recommended it to me.

Good content

I didn't like the narration AT ALL. The book is very difficult to listen to and easy to lose focus while listening due to slow nature of the content. i.e. reading out loud email subjects, from, to, priority, timestamps before getting to the message point maybe looks good in a physical book, but it's not so convenient on the audible format.

"Blew my mind"

You'll find yourself in the story if you're in IT.This completley changed my thought process when it came to workflow.