The Phoenix Project: A Graphic Novel about It, Devops, and Helping Your Business Win - Paperback

by Gene Kim (Adapted by), Mike Collins (Illustrator)

The transformation of Parts Unlimited has only just begun.

After stabilizing the disastrous Phoenix Project launch, Bill Palmer and his IT team face an even greater challenge: proving that technology isn't just a cost center but the key to the company's survival. With market share plummeting and competitors pulling ahead, Bill must navigate treacherous corporate politics while racing to master "The Three Ways"--revolutionary principles that could change everything.

When the board threatens to split the company, Bill's team embarks on an audacious experiment called "Project Unicorn." Their mission: deliver ten deployments a day instead of one per quarter. It's a goal so ambitious that even Erik, Bill's enigmatic mentor, admits it sounds impossible. But as they break down silos between Development and Operations, something remarkable happens--they begin achieving what the business truly needs rather than what it thinks it wants.

Alongside Patty, Wes, and the brilliant but overworked Brent, Bill must confront an ambitious marketing executive willing to bypass IT entirely while convincing the CFO that technology is the solution, not the problem. The stakes? Not just Bill's career, but the future of Parts Unlimited itself.

This visually stunning adaptation brings to life the final chapter in the beloved business novel, illustrating how the principles of DevOps can transform not just IT departments but entire organizations. Through dramatic artwork and compelling storytelling, readers will discover how flow, feedback, and continuous learning can break constraints and unleash unprecedented business value.

In a world where technology defines market winners and losers, The Phoenix Project reveals the new path forward.

Author Biography

Gene Kim is a multi-award-winning CTO, researcher, and author. He is the founder of Tripwire and served as CTO for thirteen years. He is the author of six books, which have sold over one million copies, including The Unicorn Project (2019), and coauthor of the Shingo Publication award-winning Accelerate (2018), The DevOps Handbook (2016), and The Phoenix Project (2013). Since 2014, he has been the organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations. Kim has a Master of Computer Science from the University of Arizona and has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999. He was the founder and CTO of Tripwire, Inc for 13 years, an enterprise security software company. In 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to the "40 Innovative IT People to Watch Under the Age of 40" list, and he was named a Computer Science Outstanding Alumnus by Purdue University for achievement and leadership in the profession. He lives with his wife and children in Portland, OR.

Though originally training to be a lawyer, Mike Collins recently celebrated 40 years of working in comics. In that time, he's drawn pretty much every major character in the US and UK: X-Men, Batman, JLA, Spider-Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Judge Dredd, Slaine, and Rogue Trooper among them. Best known for drawing Doctor Who, since the show's triumphant return twenty years back for Doctor Who Magazine, IDW, Titan, and two Dalek graphic novels for BBC Books, as well as writing and drawing Doctor Who online games for Tiny Rebel. He's also the artist on the 1970s Marvel-style Doctor Who merchandise. He's drawn two well-regarded and successful original Graphic Novels--an adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and the docudrama about the first moon landing, Apollo. In TV he works as a storyboard artist on many genre shows: Doctor Who, Fool Me Once, His Dark Materials, Good Omens, The Witcher, Midwich Cuckoos, and Lazarus Project, among others. In recent times he's worked on several How To Draw books and part-works: a 100-issue run on How To Draw Marvel magazine; 3 volumes of How To Draw Fortnite; How To Draw Five Nights at Freddie's; he currently illustrates the D&D Adventurer partwork magazine. He's married to Bernadette Vella, an IT manager at several major international financial institutions for the last few decades, who was very excited about this book happening as she'd long used it in her work strategies. Between them, they have three daughters: Bethan, Becky, and Rhiannon; and three sons: Robert, Andrew, and Daniel, and three grandchildren: Ari, Annie, and Sonny. Mike lives in Cardiff, Wales.