The Phoenix Project

by Gene Kim

  The leader helps coach the person conducting the experiment with questions that may include:

  What was your last step and what happened?

  What did you learn?

  What is your condition now?

  What is your next target condition?

  What obstacle are you working on now?

  What is your next step?

  What is your expected outcome?

  When can we check?

  This problem-solving approach in which leaders help workers see and solve problems in their daily work is at the core of the Toyota Production System, of learning organizations, the Improvement Kata, and high-reliability organizations. Mike Rother observes that he sees Toyota “as an organization defined primarily by the unique behavior routines it continually teaches to all its members.”

  In the technology value stream, this scientific approach and iterative method guides all of our internal improvement processes, but also how we perform experiments to ensure that the products we build actually help our internal and external customers achieve their goals.

  Conclusion

  The principles of the Third Way address the need for valuing organizational learning, enabling high trust and boundary-spanning between functions, accepting that failures will always occur in complex systems, and making it acceptable to talk about problems so we can create a safe system of work. It also requires institutionalizing the improvement of daily work, converting local learnings into global learnings that can be used by the entire organization, as well as continually injecting tension into our daily work.

  Although fostering a culture of continual learning and experimentation is the principle of the Third Way, it is also interwoven into the First and Second Ways. In other words, improving flow and feedback requires an iterative and scientific approach that includes framing of a target condition, stating a hypothesis of what will help us get there, designing and conducting experiments, and evaluating the results.

  The results are not only better performance but also increased resilience, higher job satisfaction, and improved organization adaptability.

  Part I Conclusion

  In Part I of The DevOps Handbook we looked back at several movements in history that helped lead to the development of DevOps. We also looked at the three main principles that form the foundation for successful DevOps organizations: the principles of Flow, Feedback, and Continual Learning and Experimentation. In Part II, we will begin to look at how to start a DevOps movement in your organization.

  Endnotes

  Introduction

  Before the revolution… Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Beyond the Goal: Eliyahu Goldratt Speaks on the Theory of Constraints (Your Coach in a Box) (Prince Frederick, Maryland: Gildan Media, 2005), Audiobook.

  Put even more… Jeff Immelt, “GE CEO Jeff Immelt: Let’s Finally End the Debate over Whether We Are in a Tech Bubble,” Business Insider, December 9, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-of-ge-lets-finally-end-the-debate-over-whether-we-are-in-a-tech-bubble-2015-12.

  Or as Jeffrey… “Weekly Top 10: Your DevOps Flavor,” Electric Cloud, April 1, 2016, http://electric-cloud.com/blog/2016/04/weekly-top-10-devops-flavor/.

  Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt… Goldratt, Beyond the Goal.

  As Christopher Little… Christopher Little, personal correspondence with Gene Kim, 2010.

  As Steven J. Spear… Steven J. Spear, The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition (New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education), Kindle edition, chap. 3.

  In 2013, the… Chris Skinner, “Banks have bigger development shops than Microsoft,” Chris Skinner’s Blog, accessed July 28, 2016, http://thefinanser.com/2011/09/banks-have-bigger-development-shops-than-microsoft.html/.

  Projects are typically… Nico Stehr and Reiner Grundmann, Knowledge: Critical Concepts, Volume 3 (London: Routledge, 2005), 139.

  Dr. Vernon Richardson... A. Masli, V. Richardson, M. Widenmier, and R. Zmud, “Senior Executive’s IT Management Responsibilities: Serious IT Deficiencies and CEO-CFO Turnover,” MIS Quaterly (published electronically June 21, 2016).

  Consider the following… “IDC Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 6% in 2012, Despite Economic Uncertainty,” Business Wire, September 10, 2012, http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120910005280/en/IDC-Forecasts-Worldwide-Spending-Grow-6-2012.

  The first surprise… Nigel Kersten, IT Revolution, and PwC, 2015 State of DevOps Report (Portland, OR: Puppet Labs, 2015), https://puppet.com/resources/white-paper/2015-state-of-devops-report?_ga=1.6612658.168869.1464412647&link=blog.

  This is highlighted… Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley, 1995).

  As Randy Shoup… Gene Kim, Gary Gruver, Randy Shoup, and Andrew Phillips, “Exploring the Uncharted Territory of Microservices,” XebiaLabs.com, webinar, February 20, 2015, https://xebialabs.com/community/webinars/exploring-the-uncharted-territory-of-microservices/.

  The 2015 State… Kersten, IT Revolution, and PwC, 2015 State of DevOps Report.

  Another more extreme… “Velocity 2011: Jon Jenkins, ‘Velocity Culture’,” YouTube video, 15:13, posted by O’Reilly, June 20, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxk8b9rSKOo; “Transforming Software Development,” YouTube video, 40:57, posted by Amazon Web Service, April 10, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCrhemssYuI&feature=youtu.be.

  Later in his… Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Beyond the Goal.

  As with The… JGFLL, review of The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford, Amazon.com review, March 4, 2013, http://www.amazon.com/review/R1KSSPTEGLWJ23; Mark L Townsend, review of The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford, Amazon.com review, March 2, 2013, http://uedata.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1097DFODM12VD/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00VATFAMI; Scott Van Den Elzen, review of The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford, Amazon.com review, March 13, 2013, http://uedata.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2K95XEH5OL3Q5/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00VATFAMI.

  Part I Introduction

  One key principle… Kent Beck, et al., “Twelve Principles of Agile Software,” AgileManifesto.org, 2001, http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html.

  He concluded that… Mike Rother, Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results (New York: McGraw Hill, 2010), Kindle edition, Part III.

  chapter 1

  Karen Martin and… Karen Martin and Mike Osterling, Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation (New York: McGraw Hill, 2013), Kindle edition, chap 1.

  In this book... Ibid., chap. 3.

  Karen Martin and… Ibid.

  chapter 2

  Studies have shown… Joshua S. Rubinstein, David E. Meyer, and Jeffrey E. Evans, “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 27, no. 4 (2001): 763-797, doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.27.4.763, http://www.umich.edu/~bcalab/documents/RubinsteinMeyerEvans2001.pdf.

  Dominica DeGrandis, one… “DOES15—Dominica DeGrandis—The Shape of Uncertainty,” YouTube video, 22:54, posted by DevOps Enterprise Summit, November 5, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp05i0d34gg.

  Taiichi Ohno compared... Sami Bahri, “Few Patients-In-Process and Less Safety Scheduling; Incoming Supplies are Secondary,” The Deming Institute Blog, August 22, 2013, https://blog.deming.org/2013/08/fewer-patients-in-process-and-less-safety-scheduling-incoming-supplies-are-secondary/.

  In other words... Meeting between David J. Andersen and team at Motorola with Daniel S. Vacanti, February 24, 2004; story retold at USC CSSE Research Review with Barry Boehm in March 2004.

  The dramatic differences… James P. Womack and Dan
iel T. Jones, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation (New York: Free Press, 2010), Kindle edition, chap. 1.

  There are many… Eric Ries, “Work in small batches,” StartupLessonsLearned.com, February 20, 2009, http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/02/work-in-small-batches.html.

  In Beyond the… Goldratt, Beyond the Goal.

  As a solution… Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Great Barrington, MA: North River Press, 2014), Kindle edition, “Five Focusing Steps.”

  Shigeo Shingo, one… Shigeo Shingo, A Study of the Toyota Production System: From an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint (London: Productivity Press, 1989); “The 7 Wastes (Seven forms of Muda),” BeyondLean.com, accessed July 28, 2016, http://www.beyondlean.com/7-wastes.html.

  In the book… Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, Implementing Lean Software: From Concept to Cash, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley, 2007), 74.

  The following categories… Adapted from Damon Edwards, “DevOps Kaizen: Find and Fix What Is Really Behind Your Problems,” Slideshare.net, posted by dev2ops, May 4, 2015, http://www.slideshare.net/dev2ops/dev-ops-kaizen-damon-edwards.

  chapter 3

  Dr. Charles Perrow… Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999).

  Dr. Sidney Dekker… Dr. Sidney Dekker, The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error (Lund University, Sweden: Ashgate, 2006).

  After he decoded… Spear, The High-Velocity Edge, chap. 8.

  Dr. Spear extended... Ibid.

  Dr. Peter Senge… Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, 2006), Kindle edition, chap. 5.

  In one well-documented… “NUMMI,” This American Life, March 26, 2010, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/transcript.

  As Elisabeth Hendrickson... “DOES15 - Elisabeth Hendrickson - Its All About Feedback,” YouTube video, 34:47, posted by DevOps Enterprise Summit, November 5, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2BFTXBundQ.

  “In doings so… Spear, The High-Velocity Edge, chap. 1.

  As Dr. Spear… Ibid., chap. 4.

  Examples of ineffective… Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, and Barry O’Reilly, Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale (Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2015), Kindle edition, Part IV.

  In the 1700s… Dr. Thomas Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions (New York: Basic Books, 1980), 222.

  As Gary Gruver… Gary Gruver, personal correspondence with Gene Kim, 2014.

  chapter 4

  For instance, in… Paul Adler, “Time-and-Motion Regained,” Harvard Business Review, January-February 1993, https://hbr.org/1993/01/time-and-motion-regained.

  The “name, blame… Dekker, The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error, chap. 1.

  Dr. Sidney Dekker… “Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability,” Lund University, Human Factors & System Safety website, November 6, 2015, http://www.humanfactors.lth.se/sidney-dekker/books/just-culture/.

  He observed that… Ron Westrum, “The study of information flow: A personal journey,” Proceedings of Safety Science 67 (August 2014): 58-63, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261186680_The_study_of_information

  _flow_A_personal_journey.

  Just as Dr. Westrum… Nicole Forsgren Velasquez, Gene Kim, Nigel Kersten, and Jez Humble, 2014 State of DevOps Report (Portland, OR: Puppet Labs, IT Revolution Press, and ThoughtWorks, 2014), http://puppetlabs.com/2014-devops-report.

  As Bethany Macri… Bethany Macri, “Morgue: Helping Better Understand Events by Building a Post Mortem Tool - Bethany Macri,” Vimeo video, 33:34, posted by info@devopsdays.org, October 18, 2013, http://vimeo.com/77206751.

  Dr. Spear observes… Spear, The High-Velocity Edge, chap. 1.

  In The Fifth… Senge, The Fifth Discipline, chap. 1.

  Mike Rother observed… Mike Rother, Toyota Kata, 12.

  This is why… Mike Orzen, personal correspondence with Gene Kim, 2012.

  Consider the following… “Paul O’Neill,” Forbes, October 11, 2001, http://www.forbes.com/2001/10/16/poneill.html.

  In 1987, Alcoa… Spear, The High-Velocity Edge, chap. 4.

  As Dr. Spear… Ibid.

  A remarkable example… Ibid., chap. 5.

  This process of… Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto), (New York: Random House, 2012).

  According to Womack… Jim Womack, Gemba Walks (Cambridge, MA: Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011), Kindle edition, location 4113.

  Mike Rother formalized… Rother, Toyota Kata, Part IV.

  Mike Rother observes… Ibid., Conclusion.

  Afterword Endnotes

  Introduction

  When this book was first… John Allspaw and Paul Hammond, “10+ Deploys Per Day: Cooperation at Flikr,” presentation at Velocity Conference, June 23, 2009.

  In Beyond the Goal, Dr. Goldratt shares… Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Beyond the Goal: Eliyahu Goldratt Speaks on the Theory of Constraints (Your Coach in a Box) (Prince Frederick, Maryland: Gildan Media, 2005), Audiobook.

  One of the most delightful… David Lutz, “Imagine DevOps,” YouTube video, 3:05, posted March 21, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYLxw6OsZug.

  He writes, “I find myself… David Lutz, “The Phoenix Project,” dlutzy blog, May 3, 2013, https://dlutzy.wordpress.com/?s=the+phoenix+project.

  I’ve also come across otherwise… Ibid.

  In a blog post, I published… Gene Kim, “Quote: ‘I Used to Hate “The Phoenix Project” Until I Realized It Was About Me,’” ITRevolution.com blog, September 24, 2012, https://itrevolution.com/i-used-to-hate-when-it-fails-until-i-realized-it-was-about-me/.

  After finishing the book… Ibid.

  As my friend Jez Humble... Jez Humble, personal conversation with Gene Kim.

  As Jeff Immelt, former CEO… Jeff Immelt, “GE CEO Jeff Immelt: Let’s Finally End the Debate over Whether We Are in a Tech Bubble,” Business Insider, December 9, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-of-ge-lets-finally-end-the-debate-over-whether-we-are-in-a-tech-bubble-2015-12.

  Or as Jeffrey Snover… Electric Cloud, “Weekly Top 10: Your DevOps Flavor,” Electric Cloud, April 1, 2016, http://electric-cloud.com/blog/2016/04/weekly-top-10-devops-flavor/.

  IDC, the analyst firm, says… Abel Avram, "IDC Study: How Many Software Developers Are Out There?" InfoQ, https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDC-software-developers

  In 2016, I was talking… Gene Kim, “Face-to-Face DevOps: Protect and Serve,” CA.com, March 31, 2016, https://www.ca.com/us/rewrite/articles/devops/face-to-face-devops-to-protect-and-serve-.html.