QA Revolution

What are the Top 2 DevOps Books?

If you are looking to learn more information about DevOps it will take you a while to figure out what are the top 2 DevOps books  on the internet today.  I am not a huge fan of reading, so when I read, I really like to enjoy the books I read.  In addition, you want to make sure that you are getting the right information.  There are so many thoughts around DevOps, and there is quite honestly a lot of misinterpretation on the subject, whether it is at a conference, on a blog, or written in books.  You want to make sure you can understand DevOps best practices so that you can effectively implement those either as a consultant or an employee for the organization you are working for.  As you probably already know DevOps is one of the key cornerstones of organizations that are looking to transform their development and operations processes.  Anyone you talk with today is going to mention DevOps over and over again as a part of their IT transformation strategy.  You want to make sure you understand and can actively contribute to the organizational objectives.  Simply put, DevOps is DevOps is a software development methodology that combines software development with information technology operations. The goal of DevOps is to shorten the systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives.

Top 2 DevOps Books

Top DevOps Book: The Phoenix Project

Several years ago, I was at a conference, and I heard about a particular book that sounded really interesting.  It isn’t your typically technology book because it is written as a fictional novel.  Is is called The Phoenix Project.  It really is a fantastic book and quick, easy read.  The book helps you to identify with key challenges and issues that are facing most corporations from both a business and a technology perspective.  Here is a high level summary of the book.

Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, has been tasked with taking on a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill must fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill’s entire department will be outsourced

With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with a manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other business functions at Parts Unlimited. 

In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they’ll never view IT the same way again.

It really helps to be able to understand the challenges that Bill faces, and the steps he and others take in order to overcome the daily struggles.  The organization is constantly putting out fires, so they are unable to get ahead of these issues and develop a long term strategy.  I have personally been in several organizations, and part of the reason why I really enjoyed the book was that I could identify with the challenges that the characters in the book were facing.  The Phoenix Project authors (Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford) got together and wrote the book leveraging the ideas and concepts from a prior book call The Goal, which I also recommend.

Top DevOps Book:  The DevOps Handbook

The second book which I highly recommend is The DevOps Handbook.  This book is more of what you would typically expect from a technology book.  It helps you to gain a much better understanding of what DevOps is, and what steps you can take to implement DevOps in your organization.  The authors (Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis) are all industry heavyweights and really have perfected the art of DevOps and are helping others to do so.  Here is a high level summary of the book.

More than ever, the effective management of technology is critical for business competitiveness. For decades, technology leaders have struggled to balance agility, reliability, and security. The consequences of failure have never been greater―whether it’s the healthcare.gov debacle, cardholder data breaches, or missing the boat with Big Data in the cloud.

And yet, high performers using DevOps principles, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Etsy, and Netflix, are routinely and reliably deploying code into production hundreds, or even thousands, of times per day.

Following in the footsteps of The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook shows leaders how to replicate these incredible outcomes, by showing how to integrate Product Management, Development, QA, IT Operations, and Information Security to elevate your company and win in the marketplace.

I think a combination of both of these books will help you gain a tremendous understanding of DevOps.  After the initial reads, I keep both of these books handy, and I have read them at least a few times.  In addition to that, I have recommended them multiple times to everyone who is interested in learning more about this software development practice.