61 pages • 2 hours read
Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George SpaffordThe Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Palmer’s Laptop
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying and mental illness.
Throughout the novel, Palmer’s laptop is a symbolic representation of the state of Parts Unlimited’s operations. Early in the transition from Palmer’s role in Midrange Operations to his role as VP of IT Operations, he receives a replacement laptop. The temporary laptop is old, bulky, and falling apart, and Palmer constantly complains about how useless it is for modern business and IT. The laptop in this state represents the disconnected Development, QA, IT Operations, and Information Security teams with which Palmer is working. Much like the laptop, these teams struggle to get anything started, often crash before completing the work, and operate in fickle conditions. Palmer’s laptop dies regularly, cannot load emails, and will only start at a specific point of the charge cycle. This dysfunction reflects the initial state of DevOps as a collection of parts barely functioning in unison, rather than a unified machine. Specifically, the fact that Palmer needs to consistently duct tape the battery to the laptop shows the increased need for maintenance and effort when operating ineffectively.
In the end, Palmer’s laptop is replaced as the team starts to function better. As a joke, the team gives Palmer his old laptop, which has been bronzed and strapped to a wooden plaque. Palmer notes, “I see the broken hinge and the duct tape I put on to hold the battery in. And now the entire laptop is covered in what looks like a thick layer of gold-colored paint” (393). The laptop was never fixed, but it is coated in shiny gold paint, much like the initial attempts at fixing the IT department, which were focused only on making sure IT looked good to the board and Masters. Now, in the wake of their success, the laptop is a fitting representation of how far Palmer and his team have come, as well as of the struggles they endured before unifying DevOps.
MRP-8/The Factory
MRP-8 is the manufacturing plant closest to the Parts Unlimited headquarters and makes its car parts. The plant becomes a motif in the novel as Reid brings Palmer to MRP-8 regularly for lessons on how to run a department. In the plant, Reid discusses different work centers, roles, and processes, often in seemingly esoteric ways that pull Palmer forward in his journey to understand the Three Ways. Palmer is usually frustrated during these encounters since he often struggles to connect his IT issues to the plant’s physical manufacturing methods. MRP-8 is a physical representation of the unified elements of business and consistently reminds Palmer of the existing theory and thought about how businesses should operate.
MRP-8 also acts as a symbol in the novel, representing the proper functioning of a business. Reid notes the processes of each work center, the elevation and exploitation of the heat treat oven as a constraint, and even the workers and managers as examples of successful models for running a department. There is a critical disconnect, especially in Palmer’s mind, between the physical plant and the “invisible” work of IT; with these visits, Reid constantly tries to get Palmer to think outside the frame of IT, reinforcing the idea that IT, though physically different from manufacturing, is theoretically bound by the same laws and concepts as any other business operation. Through MRP-8, Palmer comes to understand how he can run his department the same way as MRP-8 functions, integrating the Three Ways into his business processes.
Incorrect Names
A running motif in the novel is the use of incorrect names; specifically, Erik Reid uses the wrong names to refer to people he does not respect. At first, Palmer is not sure if Reid is intentionally misremembering names or not, but it quickly becomes clear that Reid remembers a great deal of important information. For most of the novel, this opens the possibility that Reid does not consider some team members’ names to be important, but it also implies that those people do not deserve respect. For example, Reid calls Chris Allers, “Chester;” Wes Davis, “Wilbur;” and John Pesche, “Jimmy.” However, Reid consistently calls Bill Palmer, “Bill,” indicating his respect for Palmer’s efforts to learn and implement the Three Ways.
At the end of the novel, Reid is unsure if he wants to shake Pesche’s hand, and, when he does shake his hand, he calls him “John.” However, Pesche, having earned Reid’s respect, turns this motif around, calling Reid “Erkel.” The fact that Pesche is the person who reverses Reid’s motif is critical, as Pesche also experiences intense bullying in the novel. When Pesche has a mental health crisis, for example, people like Davis joke about him behind his back. In the end, Pesche has taken back control of his life and earned the respect of his coworkers, including Reid, but calling Reid “Erkel” points out the ridiculous nature of the team’s bullying, showing how foolish Reid’s motif is.
