I love to read, but I much parables to a straight textbook-style book when it comes to business-type books or personal growth books. For example, some of my favorite business-type/personal growth books are:
If/when I write my personal development book that has been rolling around in the back of my mind, I’m definitely going to make it a parable-style book.
Many companies are trying to become more agile and adopt a DevOps (or DevSecOps) mindset. If you are a leader in any of these companies (or an individual contributor for that matter), you need to read books by Gene Kim.
The Phoenix Project: Most people who are considering a move to Agile have heard of The Phoenix Project and I would definitely recommend reading it to get an understanding of Agile and Lean principles.
The DevOps Handbook: In his second book, Gene Kim definitely goes more practical and gets into the nuts and bolts. This is not a parable-style book. This one gets into the details of how (and why) to implement DevOps. When I was at my previous company, I lent this book to both our IT Audit lead as well as our Change Management lead to help get ahead of some of the objections that I knew would come if we were to fully implement Agile/DevOps practices.
The Unicorn Project: Gene Kim returns to storytelling in his latest book as he dives into the story of Parts Unlimited as a group of rogues implement the Three Ways of DevOps. A lot of people haven’t heard about The Unicorn Project which is a shame because it is a fantastic book and a great companion to the other books.
I hope this post was helpful, especially to those looking to implement Agile/Dev(Sec)Ops practices within their organizations.
Follow Gene Kim: Website | Blog | Twitter
Follow Friday posts are posts where I highlight someone I follow as a way to promote and encourage others.