by Kim, Gene
I turn around to look at John. He’s laughing and trading insults with Wes.
“So,” Erik says, interrupting my train of thought. “What are your plans for the rest of the IT organization? Given this promotion, you’ve got some positions to fill.”
I turn back to Erik. “You know, I could never have predicted this.” Erik snorts dismissively, which I ignore. “Wes, Patty, and I have talked about this a lot. I’m sure I’m going to promote Patty to be VP of IT Operations. She’s the closest we have to a plant manager for IT Operations, and she’ll kick ass,” I say with a smile.
“Good choice,” he responds. “She certainly doesn’t look like your typical IT Operations manager, though… And Wes?”
“Believe it or not, Wes made it very clear he doesn’t want to be VP of IT Operations,” I respond. With less certainty, I say, “If I’m supposed to vacate my role as CIO in two years, I think Wes will have a big decision to make. If I could wave a magic wand, he’d take over for Patty as head of IT Operations, and Patty will be become the next CIO. But how am I ever going to get everyone ready if Steve keeps heaping more responsibilities on me?”
Erik rolls his eyes. “Give me a break. You’re bored in your current role. You’re going to become a lot less bored. Fast. And remember that there are a lot of experienced people around you who’ve been on similar journeys, so don’t be the idiot that fails because he didn’t ask for help.”
He turns to leave but then looks at me with a glint in his eye. “Speaking of helping other people, I think you owe me something.”
“Of course,” I respond sincerely, suddenly wondering if I’ve been set up from the very beginning. “Whatever you want, just say the word.”
“I need you to help me elevate the state of the practice of how organizations manage technology. Let’s face it. Life in IT is pretty shitty when it’s so misunderstood and mismanaged. It becomes thankless and frustrating as people realize that they are powerless to change the outcome, like an endlessly repeating horror movie. If that’s not damaging to our self-worth as human beings, I don’t know what is. That’s got to change,” he says passionately. “I want to improve the lives of one million IT workers in the next five years. As someone wise once told me, ‘Messiahs are good, but scripture is better.’”
He says, “I want you to write a book, describing the Three Ways and how other people can replicate the transformation you’ve made here at Parts Unlimited. Call it The DevOps Cookbook and show how IT can regain the trust of the business and end decades of intertribal warfare. Can you do that for me?”
Write a book? He can’t be serious.
I reply, “I’m not a writer. I’ve never written a book before. In fact, I haven’t written anything longer than an e-mail in a decade.”
Unamused, he says sternly, “Learn.”
Shaking my head for a moment, I finally say, “Of course. It would be an honor and a privilege to write The DevOps Cookbook for you while I embark on what will probably be the most challenging three years of my entire career.”
“Very good. It’ll be a great book,” he says, smiling. Then he claps me again on the shoulder. “Go enjoy the evening. You deserve it.”
Everywhere I look, I see people who are genuinely having fun and enjoying each other’s company. With my drink in hand, I ponder how far we’ve come. During the Phoenix launch, I doubt anyone in this group could have imagined being part of a super-tribe that was bigger than just Dev or Ops or Security. There’s a term that we’re hearing more lately: something called “DevOps.” Maybe everyone attending this party is a form of DevOps, but I suspect it’s something much more than that. It’s Product Management, Development, IT Operations, and even Information Security all working together and supporting one another. Even Steve is a part of this super-tribe.
In that moment, I let myself feel how incredibly proud I am of everyone in this room. What we’ve pulled off is remarkable, and even though my future is probably less certain than anytime in my career, I feel incredible excitement at the challenges the coming years are going to bring.
As I take another sip of beer, something catches my eye. A bunch of my people start to look at their phones. Moments later, on the other side of the room, one of the developers next to Brent is peering into his phone, too, with everyone huddled around him.
Old instincts kicking in, I urgently look around the room for Patty who is making a beeline toward me, her phone already in her hand.
“First off, congratulations, boss,” she says, with a half smile on her face. “You want the bad news or the good news first?”
Turning to her, I say with a sense of calm and inner peace, “What have we got, Patty?”
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Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I want to acknowledge all the support from my loving wife, who put up with far more than I promised, Margueritte, and my sons, Reid, Parker, and Grant.
I want to thank Todd Sattersten, Tim Grahl, Merridawn Duckler, and Kate Sage for their incredible help and support throughout the development process of this book. Also, my profound thanks to the tireless contributions and scrutiny from Paul Muller from HP, Paul Proctor from Gartner, Branden Williams from RSA, Dr. Tom Longstaff at Johns Hopkins University, Julia Allen from SEI/CMU, Adrian Cockcroft from Netflix, Bob McCarthy, Lisa Schwartz from ITSM Academy, Jennifer Bayuk, Ben Rockwood from Joyent, Josh Corman from Akamai, James Turnbull from Puppet Labs, Charlie Betz from Enterprise Management Associates, Dr. Gene Spafford from CERIAS at Purdue University, and Michael Krigsman from Asuret.
I also want to attribute the contributions of my fellow coauthors of The DevOps Cookbook, Patrick DeBois, John Wills, and Mike Orzen. Among others, they helped crystallize the practices that became The Three Ways that Erik talked about.
I want to acknowledge John Allspaw, Paul Hammond, and Jez Humble for their groundbreaking and seminal contributions of showing how fast flow in the IT value stream is really done.
And thank you to all the other reviewers who helped shape the manuscript: David Allen, David Bills, Kip Boyle, Shane Carlson, Carlos Casanova, Scott Crawford, Iris Culpepper, Mike Dahn, Chris Eng, Paul Farrall, Daniel Francisco, Kevin Hood, Matt Hooper, Tom Howarth, Kevin Kenan, Paul Love, Norman Marks, Tom McAndrew, Ally Miller, David Mortman, Wendy Nather, Michael Nygard, John Pierce, Dennis Ravenelle, Sasha Romanosky, Susan Ryan, Fred Scholl, Lawrence “Butch” Sheets, Bill Shinn, Adam Shostack, Dan Swanson, Joe “Feech” Telafici, Jan Vromant, and Lenny Zeltser.
The methodology used to create, link, and compute Dick’s organizational KPIs to IT activities is based on the Risk-Adjusted Value ManagementTM methodology, developed by Paul Proctor and Michael Smith at Gartner, Inc.
The tool used to scope the specific audit internal control objectives to specific IT controls is called GAIT, developed by the Institute of Internal Auditors.
And my heartiest thank you to my assistant, Hannah Concannon, who made it possible for me to focus on writing and finishing the book, as well as helping me do all the final edits.
I want to also acknowledge Tim Ferriss and the help of the other alumni of the Kimono group, who helped me understand the theory and practice of book launches.
Gene Kim
Portland, OR, June 10, 2012
* * *
I would like to thank my wife, Erica, and my daughters, Emily and Rachel, for their patience and understanding with my chosen profession, which requires so much travel. Special thanks to my joyfully subversive serial coconspirators, Gene Kim and George Spafford, for being highly adaptable and tolerating my loquacious rants.
I have been ridiculously fortunate to work with some of the most creative and brilliant CXOs in
my practice over the years, such as Will “Prefontaine” Weider, CIO of Ministry Healthcare; Robert Slepin, CIO of John C. Lincoln Health Network; Oliver Eckel, CEO of Cognosec; Rob Leahy, CFO of Transdermal Corporation; Jeff Hughes, VP of Radiant Systems; Paul O’Neil, CEO of Kerzner International; and Nana Palmer, COO of Kerzner International—you all have taught me so much about courage in experimentation and radically improving IT throughput.
Lastly, I would like to thank my friend and partner in crime for many of these improvement learnings, John Dennin, Senior Engagement Manager at Assemblage Pointe, Inc.
Kevin Behr
Lancaster, PA, June 1, 2012
* * *
The journey from Visible Ops to When IT Fails further cemented my utmost respect and appreciation for Gene and Kevin. The challenges and exchanges we’ve had in the course of writing this book tested our collective abilities to put in writing what we have encountered in reality in the IT industry.
Gentlemen, thank you very much!
Most importantly, thank you for the unwavering love, motivation, support, and patience of my better half, Rowena. Thank you to my children, Paolo, Alyssa, and Erika, who all unselfishly put up with my chaotic and time-consuming schedule, even when on vacation. To my parents, Carroll and Alpha, thank you for instilling in me a love of learning. You have been an instrumental part in my continued quest to keep improving in all aspects of my life.
George Spafford
Saint Joseph, MI, June 1, 2012
The Phoenix Project:
A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
© 2013 Gene Kim, Kevin Behr & George Spafford
All rights reserved.
ISBN13: 978-0-9882625-7-7
IT Revolution Press
Portland, Oregon
[email protected]
For ordering copies of this book: [email protected]
Cover design by Joy Stauber
Cover illustration by eboy
Interior design by Abbey Gaterud
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