The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spaffordby Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford
Ranked 9 of 24 business books by recommenders
Recommended for explaining DevOps and Agile through a novel about slow IT work, which makes the lessons easier to take in.
Recommended for explaining DevOps and Agile through a novel about slow IT work, which makes the lessons easier to take in.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Teaches DevOps and Agile ideas
“One of the lessons in that book is that the main reasons things in IT are slow isn't because tickets take a long time to complete”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “Andrej Karpathy talks about "Claws"” “it did help me get a better understanding of "Agile" and the DevOps mindset”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Trillions spent and big software projects are still failing”
Other business books people recommend
The four most recommended other business books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gervais Principleby Venkatesh Rao | 32 | 6 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| The Lean Startupby Eric Ries | 32 | 6 | 84% | 5 | 10 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| Incorruptibleby Eric Ries | 23 | 11 | 68% | 4 | — | Approved |
| The Goalby Eliyahu Goldratt | 21 | 3 | 88% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Phoenix Projectby Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George SpaffordThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“ones that could have been written as non-fiction but for the purposes of getting the point across weren't”
“One of the lessons in that book is that the main reasons things in IT are slow isn't because tickets take a long time to complete”
“The hero manager described in the phoenix project is a myth.”
“This book reinvigorated my love for management”
“even if you've read its IT equivalent, The Phoenix Project”
“it did help me get a better understanding of "Agile" and the DevOps mindset”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.