# Title: [[{ 2021-04-21 The Unicorn Project]] ## Metadata - `Tags:` [[Z/DevOps]] - [[IT]] - [[Information Technology]] - [[🌲️/Business]] - [[Software Engineering]] - [[Software Development]] - `Type:` [[🌲️/{]] - `Author:` [[@Gene Kim]] - `Notable Authors:` - `General Subject:` [[Lean 6 Sigma]] - [[Work]] - [[Technology]] - [[Technology Innovation]] - `Specific Subject:` [[Z/DevOps]] - [[Software Development]] - `ISBN:` 978-1942788768 - `DOI:` - `Publish Date:` 2019-11-26 - `Reviewed Date:` [[2021-04-21]] ## Citation ```latex @book{kimUnicornProjectNovel2019, title = {The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Developers, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order}, shorttitle = {The Unicorn Project}, author = {Kim, Gene}, year = {2019}, edition = {First Edition}, publisher = {{IT Revolution}}, address = {{Portland, OR}}, abstract = {"With The Phoenix Project we learned about the Three Ways. Now with The Unicorn Project, Gene Kim introduces the Five Ideals. This highly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling title The Phoenix Project takes another look at Parts Unlimited, this time from the perspective of software development. In The Unicorn Project, we follow Maxine, a senior lead developer and architect, as she is exiled to the Phoenix Project, to the horror of her friends and colleagues, as punishment for contributing to a payroll outage. She tries to survive in what feels like a heartless and uncaring bureaucracy and to work within a system where no one can get anything done without endless committees, paperwork, and approvals. One day, she is approached by a ragtag bunch of misfits who say they want to overthrow the existing order, to liberate developers, to bring joy back to technology work, and to enable the business to win in a time of digital disruption. To her surprise, she finds herself drawn ever further into this movement, eventually becoming one of the leaders of the Rebellion, which puts her in the crosshairs of some familiar and very dangerous enemies. The Age of Software is here, and another mass extinction event looms-this is a story about "red shirt" developers and business leaders working together, racing against time to innovate, survive, and thrive in a time of unprecedented uncertainty...and opportunity"--}, annotation = {ZSCC: NoCitationData[s0]}, isbn = {978-1-942788-79-9 978-1-942788-77-5 978-1-942788-78-2}, keywords = {✅️,Computer software,corporate,Development,Fiction,innovation,Knowledge management,lean 6 sigma,software,software engineering,technological innovation,technology}, lccn = {PS3611.I4538} } ``` ## Notes: - > It may not be the most elegant piece of software she’s seen, but things that have been in production for twenty years rarely are. Software is like a city, constantly undergoing change, needing renovations and repair. > <div class="signature"> - LOCATION: 2113 </div> - Technical debt if not managed will spiral out of control and become as vicious and toxic as a cancerous tumor. - Technical debt must be managed, and not allowed to be grow beyond control - [[Software is like a city the infrastructure needs constant maintenance and the technical debt must be managed]] - > In her MRP team, any developer could test their own code and even push code into production themselves. They didn’t have to wait weeks for other people to do that work for them. Being able to test and push code to production is more productive, makes for happier customers, creates accountability of code quality to the people who write it, and also makes the work more joyful and rewarding. > <div class="signature"> - LOCATION: 2192 </div> - With the advent of tools like CI/CD so that Developers can fix their code after it passes a litany of tests and review the pipeline to production should be free flowing to allow the work to flow - > This is not the famous Amazon ideal of the “two-pizza team,” where features can be created by individual teams that can be fed with two pizzas. > <div class="signature"> - LOCATION: 2213 </div> - Decouple services and dependencies - Reduce how many chefs are in the kitchen - > In hindsight, giving the team a unique name is probably long overdue. She’s always loved the Tuckman phases of teams, going through form, storm, norm, and perform. She’s ready to start norming and performing! And team names help create an identity for the entire group, not just for individuals, and they reinforce the notion that team goals are more important than individual goals. > <div class="signature"> - LOCATION: 4046 </div> - [[Americans without strong cultural identities crave belonging to a group]] - [[Rulers gain followership by force leaders by inspiration]]