Just a couple of weeks ago, I received a recommendation for the book “The Phoenix Project” (Amazon.com Link) that I want to reshare here today. It’s “A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win” and I really enjoyed reading this book. It tells the story of Bill, an IT manager inside the fictional company Parts Unlimited. Their challenges pretty much overlap with many topics addressed in VMware Cloud Operations.
On a regular Tuesday morning, Bill receives a call from the VP of HR and suddenly finds himself in the office of Parts Unlimited CEO Steve. Steve talks him into becoming the new VP of IT Operations, reporting directly to him. But this is not part of the usual promotion process. Bill is becoming VP after the previous CIO and VP of IT Operations were fired just hours ago. In a phase where Parts Unlimited is facing major competitive threats – and lots of IT issues. Besides numerous major outages, they have just two weeks until the release of their long-awaited Phoenix project. A project that CEO Steve expects to “close the gap with the competition”. Customers, shareholders and all employees of Parts Unlimited are waiting for this release. And it has to be a success, otherwise the company might even go out of business. Now, Steve expects Bill to run operations and launch Phoenix. But (of course) this project is already two years delayed and has cost more than $20 million. No pressure, Bill…
And so the story begins. Over time, Bill, Steve and many others are starting to realize where IT Operations and Development have room for improvement. But the business starts also to realize how many projects actually rely on IT.
With lots of great examples, the authors give practical insights on how a successful transition towards a more business-oriented IT delivery can be realized. Because in the end, IT is all about helping the business win.
Related links, I’d like to recommend as well: