An underwhelming second entry that feels rushed

I wanted to like this audio book. Really. But Gene Kim didn't make it easy, and Frankie Corzo made it hard.

First, for the book itself.
If you have read The Phoenix Project or The Goal, you pretty much know the plot to this book. Something in a firm goes horribly wrong and our protagonist (in this case Maxine) is in the middle of it and now has to deal with the fallout. She will overcome obstacles with her cunning, optimism and the help of a mysterious mentor, who mostly speaks in riddles that self-explain themselves throughout the story.
So far, so good.
The problem is that Gene Kim is obviously no novelist. Now, I will be the first to admit that he knows way, way more than I about economics and how to run a business, and the ideas presented in this novel are wonderful and truly a great way forward, but I cannot help but feel that this book would have been way better as a simple textbook instead.
As it is, I have to slog through hundreds of minutes of uninspired description, more monologues than dialogue and a dreadfully boring middle section where the initial high stakes of the beginning (and decent ending) are mere memories.
The biggest problem this book has, in my opinion,is that Kim relies far too much on exposion through monologue. You will hear "As you all know..." at least 15 times throughout this book, followed by a character taking 3-10 minutes explaining a concept all the characters , well, um....know. This turns an otherwise interesting story into a pain to listen to, because they completely destroy your suspension of disbelief. The characters all wow and ohh and ah at each other, nodding along while being told simple truths about the company they have been working at for 10+ years.
Most of these mistakes could have been remedied if there had been a good editor allowed proper access to the text, but seemingly, that was not the case. In the Phoenix Project, I could forgive these things because the narrator did a good job of bringing the somewhat clumsy story to life, and it was clear that it was Kim's first narrative. But in this book, that's no longer the case.

Frankie Corzo reads it like a bed time story. No way around it. At the beginning, I felt like she tried to give the characters an Iota of life, but these attempts are quickly abandoned for "read it out" style of dialogue. More than that, there are hundreds(!) of passages where it is clear she had to re-record over her own mistakes (some of which are still in, mostly intonation but sometimes also a noticeable lisp). This results in a text where sometimes. Seemingly a new sentence starts in the middle. of an existing one. It confuses the heck out of me, and I wonder who let this go through quality control.

And there it is, the thing that connects both problems: Quality control.
For a book that puts so much stress on Customer Satisfaction and the importance of good QA, this book has provided neither. It feels incredibly rushed, like the Author and Narrator both had to meet some arbitrary deadline, delivering a book that would have needed at least another half a year to a year in order to be properly ready. With more time for editing and rewriting, and more time for Mz. Corso to find her reading legs (and maybe put some effort into breathing life into an arguably lifeless text), this could have been a great reading experience, instead of just an educational one.

As it is, I can recommend this book for people who abhor textbooks and need something to wash down the medicine with, but hardly anyone else. You're far better off just reading The DevOps Handbook and the inevitable companion book to this novel.

11 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great knowledge, moderate storytelling

After The Goal and The Phoenix Project I was really excited about this book to follow a new story about constraint theory in an up to date setting. It provides that and a lot of knowledge and information too. But most of these information are exposed through our female protagonist’s inner thoughts. That feels like listening to a smart ass giving you advices overlooking all the time. In other books the knowledge transfer was through the storyline.

In the end I find it good though, definitely worth to listen.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

hat mir nicht so viel "gegeben"

Ich finde DevOps sehr spannend. Das Buch selbst war für mich ziemlich "grob"; auf einige "fundamentale Weisheiten" wurde gar nicht eingegangen! Nicht auf alle der "5 ideals" wurde ausführlicher eingegangen, die "4 types of work" wurden nur mal erwähnt... hierfür muss man vielleicht das Phoenix Project gelesen haben...
ansonsten anekdotisch für mich als Nicht-Entwickler/ITler ganz interessant, Schlagworte wie NoSQL, J.SON, docker und andere Tools, Formate, Programmier- und Testvorgehensweisen zu hören... sehr technische Details.
Interessant fand ich auch die vehemente Anpreisung von funktionaler Programmierung, das habe ich dann ein bisschen im Internet nachgelesen...
Also... vielleicht eher The Phoenix Project, oder das DevOps Handbuch, ...?

OMG

If you want to understand how technology and business should operate, building high performing teams the this the book.

Over the top yet greate inspiration

Sometimes the book dwells in technical details and is slighly over the top. Yet it might be exactly this contrast that gets you involced into the book and really inspieres you. I wounder how many rebelion have been founded since the book was published. It made me question some of our architectur at least.

nice book

nice book but maybe too much jargon for someone outside the programming world. recommended anyway

Mind Blowing!

Für Entwickler eine super spannende Geschichte! Es gibt so viele Parallelen zur Wirklichkeit. Dieses Hörbuch ist ein toller Anreiz für alle in der Softwareentwicklung sich kritisch zu hinterfragen und zu schauen, was man selbst besser tun kann. Die Verbindung von Technik, Business UND Menschen in diesem Hörbuch ist großartig. So sollte es auch in der Wirklichkeit sein... aber vielleicht steckt in jedem von uns ein bisschen die Hauptdarstellerin.
Vielen Dank für die großartige Geschichte. Sie war jede Minute meiner Zeit Wert!

Good read for everyone shipping software

It covers pretty much everything related to shipping software from the perspective of an engineer. Some details sound a little weird and seem like gaps in good background checks, but overall it’s a very applicable story, especially for larger corporations.

I can highly recommend this book!

mind blown!

Gene is a great writer and combined tech and pop culture in a way I haven't seen before. I believe this audiobook is a must read for everyone in the tech industry.