Books like The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

01

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox · Business

The Goal is a business novel — written as fiction to make operational management ideas accessible — that introduced the Theory of Constraints to a broad audience.

Shares operations and systems thinking with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

02

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

Gino Wickman · Business

Traction introduces the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a practical framework for running a small to mid-sized business with more clarity, accountability, and traction.

Both dig into operations.

03

The Lean Startup

Eric Ries · Business

The Lean Startup is Eric Ries's argument that the biggest cause of startup failure is not building the wrong product — it's spending months or years building something before finding out whether anyone wants it.

A kindred business read.

04

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Richard Rumelt · Business

Good Strategy Bad Strategy is Richard Rumelt's indictment of the strategic planning process as it is practiced in most organizations, and his articulation of what genuine strategy actually requires.

Both dig into organizational design.

05

Rework

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson · Business

Rework is Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson's deliberately provocative argument against most conventional wisdom about building a business.

Both dig into operations.

06

An Elegant Puzzle

Will Larson · Business

An Elegant Puzzle is Will Larson's guide to the craft of engineering management, written from his experience leading engineering teams at Digg, Uber, and Stripe.

Shares systems thinking and organizational design with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

07

Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

Marty Cagan and Chris Jones · Business

Empowered is Marty Cagan and Chris Jones's guide to what separates product organizations that consistently build products people love from those that operate as feature factories.

Shares technology and organizational design with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

08

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't

Verne Harnish · Business

Scaling Up is Verne Harnish's update to his earlier Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, substantially revised and expanded to cover the full range of challenges a company faces as it grows from a small entrepreneurial team to a scaled organization.

Shares operations and organizational design with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

09

The E-Myth Revisited

Michael E. Gerber · Business

The E-Myth Revisited is Michael Gerber's diagnosis of why most small businesses fail — not because their owners lack technical skill, but because they confuse being good at a craft with knowing how to run a business.

Shares operations and systems thinking with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

10

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Brad Stone · Business

The Everything Store is Brad Stone's account of Amazon's founding and growth from a book retailer to one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Shares operations and technology with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

11

The Lean Manager

Michael Ballé and Freddy Ballé · Business

The Lean Manager is a business novel that follows Andy Ward, a plant manager struggling to turn around a failing automotive components facility.

Shares operations and continuous improvement with The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

12

Accelerate

Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim · Business

Accelerate is the research-backed account of what actually makes software delivery teams fast without sacrificing stability.

Both dig into continuous improvement.