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The Phoenix Project Book Review

September 14, 2016 by Thomas Henson Leave a Comment

Where do I start with DevOps?

Working in IT Operations is hard like really hard. Most of you who have been doing for years already know this. Technical debt seems to pile up and developer/operations are constantly being asked to more with less. Most companies are now an IT organization which puts more pressure from the business to help generate revenue.

DevOps is the key to helping IT operations transform from a fragile chaos ridden teams into agile disciplined teams. Sounds like another absurd promise from the buzzword of the day. I’d probably think that way, however, my back ground as a Scrum Master tells me it’s true. In the the developer realm we have been using agile frameworks since the Agile Manifesto was written in 2001. Yes we have a Manifesto!

Phoenix Project Book?

Before jumping in head first I recommend reading The Phoenix Project. It’s a fictional account of a company where everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Of course the problems all fall on IT operations. The book walks through how a company can transform from a traditional IT organization that is seen as a cost center into a revenue generating part of the company.

Find out more by watching my review of The Phoenix Project and DevOps.

 

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Transcript

Thomas Henson here with thomashenson.com. Today, we’re going to do a book review on the Phoenix Project. If you’re interested in DevOps, stay tuned.

Book Review

The Phoenix Project is a fictional account of an IT organization. You’re probably saying, “Hey, that sounds kind of boring. Why would I want to read a fictional account of an IT organization?” But it’s actually a really good read. It goes through a fictional account of Parts Unlimited, which is an aging company that’s in a very competitive environment. The IT organization just can’t seem to get everything together with all the requirements that’s being put on them. They have a CEO that’s on CNBC a lot promising this new application. The application has been in development for quite a long time and they just can’t seem to get it to market. You follow around the VP of IT, as he’s new into the role, been with the company for a while, and you see a lot of the challenges that they have.

My Perspective

From my perspective, it’s a really good book, because I just came in from the application development side and started working with IT operations people. For me, I’ve started seeing some of the challenges that they have. Coming from the Agile environment and doing Scrum, I realized hey, we can get our requirements out; we can test things; we can push new features out very quickly, but a lot of our challenges come from testing with the operations side. I remember sitting in a meeting one time, and the customer was asking about all the things that we were doing. He was really happy about them, but then he switched to questions about, “Hey, how is this going to be maintained from an operational perspective?” I was like, “I’m not really sure why you’re asking me. We’ve got all these cool features. It’s going to be an awesome project. It’s meeting all the requirements that you have. Here’s the requirements that we need to support that. Now, in the out years, I’m not sure how big the project is going to grow, because it’s just going to be awesome.” I really got beat up in that meeting about those questions. It’s like okay, you’re creating this application, but what’s it going to do in the future? How is it going to balloon up? What’s the cost to maintain an application? How complex is it? One of the things I was thinking when we were working through it is, “Yeah, there are some challenges, and it’s a new system that the operations people have to learn, but everybody wants to learn Linux.” The question was, “Well, we’re going to have to hire somebody. We’re going to have to pay for training.” Those are the things I really didn’t think about. This book puts it into perspective.

Book Examples

One of the examples that they use in it is that a lot of times, developers take a pig, and they throw the pig over the wall. They high five each other, because everything is done. But that pig is given to the operations side with little or no instructions. It’s something that they have to maintain for years on end, where application developers, we get to go to the next project. I thought it was a really interesting read. I thought it was really good, especially for somebody that’s done Agile development on the development side but never really thought about it from a DevOps perspective of how is this going to be used in operations?

Would I Recommend It?

I would recommend this book for anybody, whether you’re a developer, work in IT operations, or even just curious about how IT should work in your organization. It’s a really good book. It’s a really quick read, too. I think you can probably do it… I think it did it over in a weekend. It’s a really good book. You should check it out. For more updates, stay tuned to thomashenson.com.

Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: Agile, Agile Resource, Book Review, DevOps

Complete Agile Podcast List

January 23, 2015 by Thomas Henson 6 Comments

Why Listen to Agile Podcasts

If you are continuously improving your Scrum Team, should you not take the same approach to your scrumification? A way you can increase your scrumification in Agile Development is to try and consume as much information as you can.  One of the ways I like to do that is by listening to podcasts. The reason podcasts are so great is because they are FREE and, it is EASY to listen to them anywhere. Especially if you have a hellish hour-long commute like I do.

Passing Cars

Where to find Agile Podcasts?

Searching for anything in the iTunes store is always so clunky compared to finding a list online, but I still tried to search for Scrum and Agile Podcast. I was able to find some Agile podcasts but it also threw in podcasts that weren’t Agile-based. After searching online I didn’t find a resource listing out specific Agile Podcasts.

(However I did find a great resource for Development Podcast from John Sonmez and I recognize his list as the inspiration for this list)

headphones

After searching for Agile Podcast/Scrum Podcast I didn’t find any specific Ultimate/Complete/Best list of Agile podcasts. So I decided to create one.

Complete Agile Podcast List

(The following are in no particular order. Except the fact that This Agile Life is first because they have an MBA on the show)

This Agile Life – A podcast with about 4(+/-  1) rotating hosts that hold 30-45 minute discussions on Agile topics. One of my favorite podcasts because 1) the host has an MBA and 2) all of the hosts are really knowledgeable.

  • Daily Standup – Episode only had one host, John Sextro, but a lot of great tips about running your daily stand up. Now matter how long
    you have been doing Scrum, this episode will give you some ideas for your standups.

The Agile Coffee  – Episodes are done in a Lean Coffee format, meaning, where topics are voted and discussed for 5 minutes, then another vote is taken to decide to carry on the discussion or move on. There are different people on the show, but it’s more or less 2 people with the 3 hosts of the show.

  • Episode 16 – Discussion on the Hackathons Vic recently ran was very interesting, and how his company has been facilitating Hackathons is great information.

The Agile Revolution – Craig Smith, Renee Troughton and Tony Ponton are the 3 hosts of this podcast and have guests that appear on the show as well. Most episodes are around 45 minutes and the series has about 80+ episodes to date.

The Daily Scrum – The series ran during 2012 and has about 19 episodes.
Last episode was in 2012. About 17 episodes long.

Agile Weekly – Podcast has been running since 2009 and has about 130+ episodes. Most episodes are under 20 minutes. The last podcast was in mid-June 2014.

Scrum For Success – Series ran for 5 episodes in 2009. No current episodes.

Agile Toolkit Podcast – A wealth of information with a ton of episodes. Many episodes feature a lot of big names in the Agile Community. Topics
go from Scrum Certification to how to set up your team rooms. Most episodes are under 30 minutes, which provides a
great opportunity to listen on the car/train to work. Bob Martin Episodes Executive Transition – Great episode for learning how to guide your leadership into the Agile world.

Agile University – The idea for this podcast is to give an overview of agile in under 5 minutes. Great way to bring someone into the Agile fold
in 8 short episodes.

Confessions of an Agile Activist – 7 episodes spanning 2007 to 2013; the host talked about bringing the podcast back sometime. Contains a 3 part series on selling Scrum.

Arrested DevOps –  Host Matt Stratton, Trevor Hess, and Bridget Kromhout talk about DevOps topics. The Podcast is current and currently has 29 episodes.

Agile Chicago Style – New Podcast from the Chicago Agile community. New episodes published every month.

Meta-Cast – Agile podcast hosted by Josh Anderson and Bob Galen. Podcast has over 65 episodes and 2 episodes are added monthly.

Tell Me What I Missed

Just like in Agile development, this is the first release of the Agile Podcast list, so it’s not going to perfect. In fact, it will take many releases to become a GREAT Agile Podcast List. So be sure to let me know what I have missed or any ideas for improving the list by  posting comments, Tweeting, or sending me an email.

Filed Under: Agile Tagged With: Agile, Agile Resource, Podcast, Scrum

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