Book Review: The Phoenix Project

It has been a while since I read a book on software engineering.  I read many articles, journals, newsletters, blogs, standards, etc. every day of course, but not a full-size book.  I think the last full-size software engineering book I read was The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks and the first edition of the Code Complete by Steve McConnell.  If you have been a software engineer for a while (try the '80s) you know how long it has been. I read this book because it was highly recommended on Amazon.  So I picked it up and give it a try.  I am glad I did.

I read this book from the perspective of an IT auditor but I am sure this book would benefit those who are an IT auditor, an CIO/CTO, an operational manager who has accountability to the company's IT implementation, and of course an IT manager.

This book is actually a fiction.  Though it is no Tom Clancy or John Grisham, it is quite an enjoyable read -- enough that I didn't put it down and finished it in a week while riding public transportation back-and-forth work.  Although the authors are not professional fiction writers but IT consultants, the book isn't mistakenly just filled up with technical facts and principles to make the book dry to read.  Being IT practitioners, the authors dissolve enough realistic scenarios into the book to make the story rich -- to the degree that many times I think they are telling a real story that they encountered.

If you are an auditor, you will find this book a 300-page case study.  You might feel urges to write a finding statement for the things that they did.  If you are an IT manager / CIO / CTO, you would find some of the scenarios familiar and would be interested to see how the characters in the book solved the problems.

I am not going to reveal any story line here, which you can find on the reviews in any one of the book-selling websites, I just want to recommend this book to those who are in the IT business.  One important point the book highlights is that IT should help the business, not a just a supporting or logistical department.  The "Three Ways" mentioned in the book are important messages.  There are some resources pages at the back of the book.  Make sure you read them as well.