Concepts and teachings found in “The Phoenix Project” and “The Unicorn Project”. DevOps, Agility, and Collaboration at the heart of both books.

9 min readJul 3, 2024

It’s been a while since I engaged in a reading as captivating as these two books, each chapter read increased the desire to read the next! These books, written by Gene Kim and his co-authors, provided me with valuable insights and even brought other perspectives on concepts widely publicized and adopted in the world of IT and DevOps. The mix of fiction and real-world scenarios (most of the time very faithful to everyday life) made these readings an informative and pleasurable experience, leaving me with lessons and reflections on the approach to IT operations and organizational management.

A Delightful Reading Experience

From the very first pages, both books captivated me with their engaging narratives. “The Phoenix Project” introduced Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, who is thrown into the chaos of a failing project, crucial to the company’s future. “The Unicorn Project” shifted the focus to Maxine, a lead developer, offering a new perspective on the challenges within the same company. The characters’ struggles and triumphs seemed incredibly real, making it easy to relate to their experiences and the lessons they learned.

One of the reasons that led me to write this text was precisely to help me fix all the teachings and concepts described in both books.

Transformative and Informative Lessons

What really set these books apart was the depth of knowledge and practical wisdom they conveyed. Below I have summarized the main themes that caught my attention in both books. I organized each theme around the main lessons learned, its impact (or possible impact) in daily life, and how to measure that impact.

Theory of Constraints:

Lesson: Focus on identifying and managing bottlenecks to improve system performance.
Impact: This principle helped me interpret workflows, focusing on critical constraints and how to identify them.
Metrics:
Lead Time Reduction: Measure the time from the start of a process to its completion.
Throughput Increase: Track the number of items or tasks completed per unit of time.
Cycle Time: The time it takes for work to progress from start to finish.

Work-In-Process (WIP) Limits:

Lesson: Limit WIP to ensure a smooth workflow and avoid overburden.
Impact: Implementing WIP limits usually results in a significant improvement in task focus and a reduction in multitasking within teams.
Metrics:
Task Completion Rate: The number of tasks completed per time period.
Quality Improvement: Measure defects per unit/delivery of work.
Employee Satisfaction: Survey team members on job satisfaction and stress levels (eNPS / lNPS).

The Three Ways of DevOps:

Lesson: Optimize work processes through Flow, Feedback, and Continuous Learning.
Impact: Adopting these principles usually speeds up delivery processes, facilitates quick problem resolution, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.
Metrics:
Deployment Frequency: The number of deployments to production per time period.
Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR): The average time to recover from a failure.
Change Failure Rate: The percentage of changes that result in failures.

Visibility of Work:

Lesson: Make work visible to improve transparency and manage tasks effectively.
Impact: Visualizing work through Kanban boards, Scrum, and flowcharts usually enhances collaboration and early problem detection.
Metrics:
Lead Time: The time required to complete a task from start to finish.
Team Communication Effectiveness: Survey team members on communication clarity and effectiveness.
Problem Resolution Time: Track the time required to resolve identified issues.

Small Batches:

Lesson: Deliver work in small, manageable batches to reduce risks and improve quality.
Impact: Smaller batch deliveries minimize risks and increase the quality of deliveries and pre-understanding of them.
Metrics:
Deployment Frequency: The number of deployments per time period.
Defect Density: The number of defects per unit/delivery of work.
Customer Satisfaction: Use Net Promoter Score (NPS) or customer feedback to evaluate success.

Embracing Failures and Learning from Them:

Lesson: View failures as opportunities for learning and improvement.
Impact: This mindset shift encourages resilience and continuous learning within teams.
Metrics:
Post-Mortem Reports: Number and quality of post-incident analysis reports.
Training and Development Hours: Track hours dedicated to training and development.
Employee Innovation Submissions: Measure the number of innovative ideas submitted by employees.

Psychological Safety and Collaboration:

Lesson: Create an environment where team members feel safe to take risks and express ideas.
Impact: Psychological safety increases engagement and collaboration, leading to more innovative solutions.
Metrics:
Employee Engagement Scores: Survey employees on their engagement and psychological safety.
Team Collaboration Metrics: Measure the frequency and effectiveness of team collaborations.
Innovation Rate: Track the number of new ideas and projects initiated.

Technical Practices (CI/CD, Automated Testing, Infrastructure as Code):

Lesson: Implement robust technical practices for reliable and resilient systems.
Impact: These practices increase system reliability and reduce deployment time.
Metrics:
Deployment Success Rate: The percentage of successful deployments.
Test Coverage: The percentage of code covered by automated tests.
Infrastructure Provisioning Time: The time required to provision infrastructure using code.

Architectural and Organizational Alignment:

Lesson: Align system architecture with the organizational structure to improve manageability.
Impact: Aligning architecture with organizational goals improves manageability and efficiency.
Metrics:
Organizational Efficiency: Track efficiency metrics, such as project completion rates and resource utilization.
Employee Feedback: Survey employees on the effectiveness of organizational alignment.

Overcoming Organizational Silos:

Lesson: Break down silos to promote better collaboration.
Impact: Enhanced interdepartmental collaboration leads to increased innovation and better problem resolution.
Metrics:
Interdepartmental Collaboration: Measure the frequency and effectiveness of interdepartmental projects.
Innovation Metrics: Track the number of new initiatives and cross-functional projects.
Customer Satisfaction: Customer feedback on overall service and product quality.

Empowerment and Autonomy:

Lesson: Empower teams with autonomy to make decisions and take ownership.
Impact: Empowering teams results in greater motivation and better decision-making.
Metrics:
Employee Autonomy Scores: Survey employees on their perceived level of autonomy.
Decision-Making Speed: Measure the time required to make key decisions.
Project Success Rate: Track the success rate of projects managed by autonomous teams.

The Five Ideals:

Lesson: Embrace Locality and Simplicity, Focus, Flow, and Joy, Improvement of Daily Work, Psychological Safety, and Customer Focus.
Impact: These ideals create a more productive and customer-focused environment.
Metrics:
Productivity Metrics: Measure the output and efficiency of developers.
Quality Metrics: Track defects and issues per release.
Customer Satisfaction Metrics: Use NPS and customer feedback to evaluate satisfaction.

Types of Work

In “The Phoenix Project,” the character Erik also emphasizes the importance of understanding and managing different types of work within an IT organization. Recognizing these types of work helps prioritize tasks and ensure the right amount of resources and attention is allocated to each.

Business Projects:

Description: These are strategic initiatives that drive the organization forward, often aligned with business goals and are usually the highest priority.
Examples: Developing new features for a product, launching a new marketing campaign, implementing a major IT system upgrade.
Metrics:
Return on Investment (ROI): Measure the financial return of the project.
Time to Market: Track the time required to launch a new feature or product.
Customer Satisfaction: Use NPS or customer feedback to evaluate success.

Internal IT Projects:

Description: These projects focus on improving the internal IT infrastructure and processes. They may not directly contribute to revenue but are essential for maintaining and improving the IT environment.
Examples: Upgrading servers or databases, implementing new IT management tools, enhancing security measures.
Metrics:
System Uptime: Measure the availability and resilience of IT systems.
Incident Response Time: Track the time required to respond to and resolve incidents.
Cost Savings: Calculate the cost savings from improved efficiencies.

Changes (Daily Work):

Description: These are routine tasks and small changes that IT teams handle daily. They include minor updates, bug fixes, and maintenance activities.
Examples: Applying patches and updates, fixing minor bugs, responding to user support requests.
Metrics:
Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR): Measure the average time required to resolve issues.
Change Success Rate: Track the percentage of successful changes implemented.
User Satisfaction: Survey users on their satisfaction with IT support.

Unplanned Work (Firefighting):

Description: These are unexpected tasks that arise due to incidents, outages, or urgent issues. They often disrupt planned work and can consume significant resources and negatively impact planned work.
Examples: Responding to system outages, handling security breaches, fixing critical bugs in production, hotfixes.
Metrics:
Incident Frequency: Track the number of incidents over time.
Incident Impact: Measure the impact of incidents on business operations (e.g., downtime cost or impact on the development flow).
Post-Incident Reviews: Conduct reviews to identify root causes and lessons learned.

The Three Horizons

In “The Phoenix Project” and “The Unicorn Project,” Erik introduces the concept of the Three Horizons to help manage and plan for the future. This framework helps organizations balance immediate needs with long-term growth and innovation. Broadly speaking, it involves short, medium, and long-term planning but structured in a way I found clearer, more visible, and easier to connect.

Horizon 1: Immediate Needs and Operations

Description: Focuses on maintaining and improving current operations, addressing immediate issues, and ensuring the stability of existing systems.
Examples: Routine maintenance, performance optimization, handling incidents, and supporting current products.
Metrics:
System Uptime: Measure the availability and resilience of current systems.
Incident Resolution Time (MTTR): Track the time required to resolve immediate issues.
Customer Satisfaction: Use NPS or customer feedback to evaluate satisfaction with current services.

Horizon 2: Near-Term Improvements and Growth

Description: Involves enhancing existing capabilities, exploring new opportunities, and preparing for future growth. This includes developing new features or services that build on current systems.
Examples: Adding new features to existing products, expanding market reach, improving processes, and integrating new technologies.
Metrics:
Time to Market: Track the time required to develop and launch new features.
Revenue Growth: Measure the increase in revenue from new enhancements.
Customer Adoption Rate: Track how quickly customers adopt new features or services.

Horizon 3: Long-Term Innovation and Transformation

Description: Focuses on future-oriented innovations that can transform the organization. This involves exploring disruptive technologies, creating new products, and entering new markets.
Examples: Research and development of new technologies, launching new product lines, strategic partnerships, and exploring new business models.
Metrics:
Innovation Rate: Measure the number of new ideas or projects initiated.
Market Share: Track the organization’s presence in new markets.
Long-Term ROI: Assess the long-term financial return from innovative projects.

Core and Context

In “The Phoenix Project” and “The Unicorn Project,” the character Erik introduces the concept of “Core and Context” to help organizations focus their efforts and resources effectively. This concept helps distinguish between activities that directly contribute to a company’s unique value proposition (core) and those that support but do not differentiate the company in the market (context).

Core:

Description: Core activities are those that create a competitive advantage and differentiate the organization in the marketplace. These are the unique capabilities that drive business growth and success.
Examples: Developing proprietary technology, creating innovative products, and offering exceptional customer service.
Metrics:
Revenue Growth: Measure the increase in revenue directly attributable to core activities.
Market Share: Track the company’s share of the market in areas related to its core competencies.
Customer Satisfaction: Use NPS or customer feedback to assess satisfaction with core offerings.

Context:

Description: Context activities are necessary for running the business but do not provide a competitive edge. These activities support core functions but are often standardized or commoditized.
Examples: IT infrastructure maintenance, payroll processing, and routine administrative tasks.
Metrics:
Cost Efficiency: Measure the cost savings achieved in context activities.
Operational Reliability: Track the uptime and reliability of support systems.
Process Improvement: Assess improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of context activities.

Conclusion

The teachings of the character Erik provide a comprehensive vision for transforming Tech operations and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and innovation. By implementing these key concepts and measuring their success through relevant metrics, organizations can achieve significant improvements in efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction.

Some practices and concepts described here are relatively old by 2024, but it is worth noting that at the time of the book “The Phoenix Project” (2013), all of this was still new and not common market practice, and even today, many companies have not yet adopted them.

As someone who has been in the market for some time and has closely followed some of these changes, I can’t help but laugh at certain moments in the book when older and now obsolete practices in the market were described as part of the daily routine.

I recommend reading both books regardless of whether your scope is as an individual contributor or a manager; there is plenty of practical learning for both contexts.