The Phoenix Project

A novel about Bill Palmer, an IT operations director at an auto parts company who is handed a failing, over-budget project and 90 days to turn it around. A mentor introduces ideas from manufacturing, including the Three Ways, and the story shows how IT work can be seen as a flow of work with bottlenecks, handoffs and unplanned interruptions. Themes include aligning IT with business goals and breaking down silos.

MSP owners read it for what it says about service desk life: interrupt-driven work, changes that break things and unclear priorities. It suits an owner or service manager who wants a story format for thinking about workflow and change, rather than a manual.