5 Must Read DevOps Books

Introduction: 

For all the people out there who want to understand DevOps and  CI/CD methodology better and start implementing it in their organization, I have curated a list of top 5 must read DevOps  books. So let us dive into the world of books. 

The Phoenix Project: 

Authors: Gene Kim, George Spafford and Kevin Behr

Phoenix Project

This book nicely explains the DevOps culture and the benefits that accrue from its implementation. The story revolves around protagonist Bill Palmer, who becomes the CIO and heads Phoenix Project- a project that has  already exceeded the budget and timeline. 

He encounters resistance to change and the book depicts how he overcomes the challenges and steers the organization towards success by implementing the DevOps methodology.. One of the key things that this book highlights is how Bill Palmer brought various siloed staff members such as the SVP  of retail operations, Director of  IT  service support , Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)  to resolve the issues pertaining to the Phoenix  project and make it a success.   So if you are looking for a CD solution which brings an interdisciplinary approach towards software delivery, then read about OpsMx Enterprise for Spinnaker.

Continuous Delivery 

Authors: Jez Humble and David Farley 

Continuous Delivery

Often referred to as the ‘Bible of Continuous Delivery’, this book deserves to be studied if you want to transform your software delivery. The first few chapters are interesting as they explain the hiccups in software delivery, and introduce a concept of ‘value stream’ to automate software delivery.  

 It covers a wide array of topics such as source code control, release planning, configuration management, compliance, and tools to automate each task. Extending the theory of value-stream, the book advocates the use of automated pipelines for continuous integration, automated testing, automated deployment, and continuous feedback.  Furthermore, Continuous Delivery stresses on improving the collaboration between the stakeholders who are involved in producing and releasing the software. 

If you are interested to know how OpsMx Enterprise for Spinnaker provides automated pipelines for multi-cloud deployments with inbuilt safe deployment strategies, watch the video.

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations 

Authors: Gene Kim, Jez Humble and Nicole Forsgren

Accelerate

It took 4 years of  exhaustive  research  by the authors to come up with this book.  As the title suggests, this book is about how you pace up high performing teams for software delivery that would in turn result in high-performing technology organizations. Written by the doyens of the industry, this book is filled not just with abstruse theories or concepts but also has sufficient data backing off the benefits that one can attain by implementing them.

Personally, I liked the chapter-2, “Measure Software Performance”, where they outline the global outcome of software delivery. Four key parameters which are very essential for IT team , from a view of customers requesting a feature to be satisfied are:

• Lead time 
• Deployment frequency 
• Mean Time To Restore(MTTR)  
• Failure rate to manage successful software delivery

OpsMx provides OpsMx Enterprise for Spinnaker(OES) to help companies track metrics and improve their CD initiatives. Read more about real-time metrics and dashboard provides by OES 

The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations 

Authors: Gene Kim, Jez Humble,  Patrick Debois and  John Willis

Devops Hand Book

Silos are not good for organizations, this book shows you how to eliminate them through DevOps. It highlights how by integrating the efforts of the developers, testers and operating personnel through a culture of transparency, you can pace up the software delivery process.

This book considers three key elements- people, process, and tools while designing DevOps culture. To further substantiate the concepts and claims, this book has case studies from Netflix, Google, Capital One and other companies showcasing how they achieved transformation  by breaking  away from the traditional practices.

If you are interested in how Cisco transformed their software delivery and deploys 1000+ applications seamlessly using OpsMx Enterprise for Spinnaker, read the story here. 

Measure What Matters: 

Author: John Doerr

Measure What Matters

Written by the venture capitalist John Doerr, this book is one of the important reads that talks about the key parameters that you should measure that drive results. Moving away from the top-down approach of decision making with rigid framework, this book  depicts how to have more accountability, transparency and flexibility. 

 There is a concept in the book  called OKR- Objectives and Key Results that is built on the principles of obsessive focus on priorities, relentless commitment, better teamwork, accountability, and going beyond the comfort zone for achieving results.