I read this book to complete the DevOps picture from the manager's and the architect's point of view.
As DevOps engineer and developer with 30 years of experience, I find hard to stomach the notion supported by this book that developers should be free to choose their tools. The book goes on to assure us that the upside of doing so far outweighs the downside. I strongly disagree.
There is a thing called 'technical debt,' which is the sum of time and effort one has to pay to keep up with the tools one is 'married' to. To master a tool one has not only to learn the first version encountered but also those that follow in its evolution, and track new and discontinued capabilities during the course of the tool's life. This happens whether you learn C, Python, Java, or any other substantial language and tool in which one needs to remain proficient.
Now imagine multiple projects using languages and tools at the whim of the team members. The overall list of technologies in use would be a long open-ended list in no time. What skill requirements do you pass on to HR to recruit new talent? How many candidates will be a good match for your large list of technical requirements?
The argument in favor of such dangerous freedom is that otherwise developers may have to use tools they hate.
Choosing the staff and the tools of a project requires careful consideration. It's at this point that you choose the best possible match. Consult the team members if you will, but it should not be up to them to decide, but to the project leader. Otherwise imagine if Team A chooses Confluence for documentation, while Team B uses Office 360, and yet Team C goes for TEX. After a few years you will have a rainbow of documentation formats. How is that better than having a consistent one?
Developers like to use the tools they mastered, when not looking to learn a new one, and yes that is important, but what you do is to group people with skills pertinent to the project from the outset, so nobody will hate it.
This notion that developers should be the ones choosing a project's technologies, really broke the spell of this book for me. How could they say that, and what sort of measurements did lead to such result?
Other Sellers on Amazon
S$30.54
+ FREE Delivery
+ FREE Delivery
Sold by:
TheProductsHub
S$35.84
+ FREE Delivery
+ FREE Delivery
Sold by:
ShopSpell USA
Have one to sell?
Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and Devops: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations Paperback – Illustrated, 27 March 2018
See all formats and editions
Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price
|
New from | Used from |
Paperback, Illustrated
""
|
S$27.71
|
S$18.89 | — |
FREE delivery: 30 Apr. - 8 May Details
Enhance your purchase
Frequently bought together
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- The DevOPS Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology OrganizationsGene KimPaperback
- Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRsJohn DoerrHardcover
- The Site Reliability Workbook: Practical ways to implement SREBetsy BeyerPaperback
- The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of DataGene KimHardcover
- Phoenix Project: A Novel about It, Devops, and Helping Your Business WinGene KimPaperback
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1942788339
- ISBN-13 : 978-1942788331
- Best Sellers Rank: 8,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer reviews:
Product description
Review
"'Here, do this!' The evidence presented in Accelerate is a triumph of research, tenacity and insight, proving not just correlation but a causal link between good technical and management behaviours and business performance. It also exposes the myth of "maturity models" and offers a realistic, actionable alternative. As an independent consultant working at the intersection of people, technology, process, and organisation design this is manna from heaven! As chapter 3 concludes: 'You can act your way to a better culture through implementing these practices in technology organizations'. There is no mystical culture magic, just 24 concrete, specific capabilities that will lead not only to better business results, but more importantly to happier, healthier, more motivated people and an organisation people want to work at. I will be giving copies of this book to all my clients."--Dan North, Independent Technology and Organization consultant
"A must read! In a sea of books about technology approaches, Accelerate stands out in its clarity and practicality."--Karen Martin, Author, Clarity First and The Outstanding Organization
"Accelerate does a fantastic job of explaining not only what changes organizations should make to improve their software delivery performance, but also the why, enabling people at all levels to truly understand how to level up their organizations."--Ryn Daniels, Infrastructure Operations Engineer at Travis CI and author of Effective DevOps
"Excellent! As well as conclusively showing that DevOps outcomes are faster, cheaper AND safer, this book is an excellent case study for robust survey design and analysis."--Adrian Cockroft
"In their book Accelerate, Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble and Gene Kim don't break any new conceptual ground regarding agile, lean and DevOps. Instead, they provide something that might be even more valuable which is a look inside the methodological rigor of their data collection and analysis approach which lead them to their earlier conclusions on the key capabilities that make IT organizations better contributors to the business. This is a book that I will gladly be placing on my bookshelf next to the other great works by the authors."--Cameron Haight, VP & CTO, Americas, VMware
"The 'art' of constructing a building is a well understood engineering practice nowadays. However, in the software world, we have been been looking for patterns and practices that can deliver the same predictable and reliable results whilst minimizing waste and producing the increasingly high performance our businesses demand. Accelerate provides research backed, quantifiable and real world principles to create world class, high performing IT teams enabling amazing business outcomes. Backed by the two leading thought leaders (Kim and Humble) in the DevOps community and world class research from PHD Forsgren, this book is a highly recommended asset!"--Jonathan Fletcher, Group CTO, Hiscox
"This is the kind of foresight that CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs desperately need if their company is going to survive in this new software-centric world. Anyone that doesn't read this book will be replaced by someone that has."--Thomas A. Limoncelli, Co-Author of The Practice of Cloud System Administration
"We strongly recommend this book to anyone involved in a digital transformation for solid guidance about what works, what doesn't work, and what doesn't matter."--Tom & Mary Poppendieck, Authors of the Lean Software Development Series
"With this work, the authors have made a significant contribution to the understanding and application of DevOps. They show that when properly understood, DevOps is more than just a fad or a new name for an old concept. Their work illustrates how DevOps can improve the state of the art in organizational design, software development culture, and systems architecture. And beyond merely showing, they advance the DevOps community's qualitative findings with research-based insights that I have heard from no other source."--Baron Schwartz, Founder & CEO of VividCortex and Co-Author of High Performance MySQL
"A must read! In a sea of books about technology approaches, Accelerate stands out in its clarity and practicality."--Karen Martin, Author, Clarity First and The Outstanding Organization
"Accelerate does a fantastic job of explaining not only what changes organizations should make to improve their software delivery performance, but also the why, enabling people at all levels to truly understand how to level up their organizations."--Ryn Daniels, Infrastructure Operations Engineer at Travis CI and author of Effective DevOps
"Excellent! As well as conclusively showing that DevOps outcomes are faster, cheaper AND safer, this book is an excellent case study for robust survey design and analysis."--Adrian Cockroft
"In their book Accelerate, Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble and Gene Kim don't break any new conceptual ground regarding agile, lean and DevOps. Instead, they provide something that might be even more valuable which is a look inside the methodological rigor of their data collection and analysis approach which lead them to their earlier conclusions on the key capabilities that make IT organizations better contributors to the business. This is a book that I will gladly be placing on my bookshelf next to the other great works by the authors."--Cameron Haight, VP & CTO, Americas, VMware
"The 'art' of constructing a building is a well understood engineering practice nowadays. However, in the software world, we have been been looking for patterns and practices that can deliver the same predictable and reliable results whilst minimizing waste and producing the increasingly high performance our businesses demand. Accelerate provides research backed, quantifiable and real world principles to create world class, high performing IT teams enabling amazing business outcomes. Backed by the two leading thought leaders (Kim and Humble) in the DevOps community and world class research from PHD Forsgren, this book is a highly recommended asset!"--Jonathan Fletcher, Group CTO, Hiscox
"This is the kind of foresight that CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs desperately need if their company is going to survive in this new software-centric world. Anyone that doesn't read this book will be replaced by someone that has."--Thomas A. Limoncelli, Co-Author of The Practice of Cloud System Administration
"We strongly recommend this book to anyone involved in a digital transformation for solid guidance about what works, what doesn't work, and what doesn't matter."--Tom & Mary Poppendieck, Authors of the Lean Software Development Series
"With this work, the authors have made a significant contribution to the understanding and application of DevOps. They show that when properly understood, DevOps is more than just a fad or a new name for an old concept. Their work illustrates how DevOps can improve the state of the art in organizational design, software development culture, and systems architecture. And beyond merely showing, they advance the DevOps community's qualitative findings with research-based insights that I have heard from no other source."--Baron Schwartz, Founder & CEO of VividCortex and Co-Author of High Performance MySQL
About the Author
Dr. Nicole Forsgren does research and strategy at Google Cloud following the acquisition of her startup DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) by Google. She is best known for her work measuring the technology process and as the lead investigator on the largest DevOps studies to date. She has been an entrepreneur, professor, sysadmin, and performance engineer. Nicole's work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals. Nicole earned her PhD in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona, and is a Research Affiliate at Clemson University and Florida International University. She lives in San Francisco, CA. Jez Humble is co-author of The DevOps Handbook, Lean Enterprise, and the Jolt Award-winning Continuous Delivery. He is currently researching how to build high performing teams at his startup, DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC, and teaching at UC Berkeley. He lives in California. Gene Kim is a multiple award-winning CTO, researcher, and co-author of The Phoenix Project, Beyond The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook, and The Visible Ops Handbook. He is founder of IT Revolution, hosts the DevOps Enterprise Summit conferences, and speaks around the world. He lives in Portland, OR with his wife and children.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
No customer reviews
5 star (0%) |
|
0% |
4 star (0%) |
|
0% |
3 star (0%) |
|
0% |
2 star (0%) |
|
0% |
1 star (0%) |
|
0% |
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we do not use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars
122 reviews

Tiglath
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good But Not Great
19 June 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
75 people found this helpful

David P. Graf
4.0 out of 5 stars
I have revised my review and upgraded it based upon feedback...
10 October 2018 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
When I originally posted my review, I said that I would be glad to amend or even delete it based upon my concerns being answered or their being shown to be incorrect. One of the authors, Jez Humble, took the time to respond to me. I still have some lesser concerns but I am satisfied by his response. There was peer review of the research and DORA was not formed until after the research had been submitted for review. Since I was wrong about those points, I have upgraded my rating and have revised my review which starts in the next paragraph.
Note that I make no claim to be as skilled when it comes to research as is Forsgren. Hands down, she has an impressive resume and experience which makes me look like what you scrape off the bottom of your shoe in comparison. When I approach this book and the research, I am concerned regarding the use of Snowball research. However, I recognize how hard it is to conduct research in the workplace and the so-called "real world" outside the laboratory. When reading this book, my main point would be to keep in mind what the authors openly say, to their credit, that the research presented does not lead itself to predictive or causal analysis. However, it can be used to draw inferences that those implementing DevOps can find very valuable. Use this book to expand your ideas of how to improve software delivery.
Note that I make no claim to be as skilled when it comes to research as is Forsgren. Hands down, she has an impressive resume and experience which makes me look like what you scrape off the bottom of your shoe in comparison. When I approach this book and the research, I am concerned regarding the use of Snowball research. However, I recognize how hard it is to conduct research in the workplace and the so-called "real world" outside the laboratory. When reading this book, my main point would be to keep in mind what the authors openly say, to their credit, that the research presented does not lead itself to predictive or causal analysis. However, it can be used to draw inferences that those implementing DevOps can find very valuable. Use this book to expand your ideas of how to improve software delivery.
28 people found this helpful

M. Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy Accelerate and begin your DevOps Transformation today--the whole company will thank you.
14 April 2018 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
I’ve lived in and consulted for many companies that would benefit from transforming their culture. If you are a leader in a company, and you 1) want to validate perceptions of company performance from the inside, and 2) want to continuously improve, read on.
“The most innovative companies and highest-performing organizations are always striving to be better. High performing companies have 46 times more frequent code deployments, 440 times faster lead time from commit to deploy, 170 times faster mean time to recover from downtime, and 5 times lower change failure rate (1/5 as likely for a change to fail).”
The reasons for embarking on this DevOps journey of acceleration and transformation are many. Leaders who want to realize this level of performance will get more loyalty and work out of their current people and attract awesome new ones. They will build better, more secure software--and a mature software delivery capability provides a competitive advantage to any business. This book provides evidence and research to back these assertions.
Accelerate offers clear and compelling guidance to begin this shift no matter a company’s current level of maturity, covering the spectrum of roles from leaders to doers, from coders to architects to managers. If you are pressed for time, chapters are focused and easy to consider in turn, and provide excellent implementations recommendations.
Leaders will be especially inspired by Part 3, a case study about a real Transformation. It all started by the willingness to change.
DevOps is a cultural movement that feeds value delivery and growth within an organization. If you are responsible for any aspect of building secure, resilient rapidly evolving distributed systems, buy this book! Read it on your next plane ride and begin your journey of differentiation and transformation with the inspirational and executable guidance it offers.
“The most innovative companies and highest-performing organizations are always striving to be better. High performing companies have 46 times more frequent code deployments, 440 times faster lead time from commit to deploy, 170 times faster mean time to recover from downtime, and 5 times lower change failure rate (1/5 as likely for a change to fail).”
The reasons for embarking on this DevOps journey of acceleration and transformation are many. Leaders who want to realize this level of performance will get more loyalty and work out of their current people and attract awesome new ones. They will build better, more secure software--and a mature software delivery capability provides a competitive advantage to any business. This book provides evidence and research to back these assertions.
Accelerate offers clear and compelling guidance to begin this shift no matter a company’s current level of maturity, covering the spectrum of roles from leaders to doers, from coders to architects to managers. If you are pressed for time, chapters are focused and easy to consider in turn, and provide excellent implementations recommendations.
Leaders will be especially inspired by Part 3, a case study about a real Transformation. It all started by the willingness to change.
DevOps is a cultural movement that feeds value delivery and growth within an organization. If you are responsible for any aspect of building secure, resilient rapidly evolving distributed systems, buy this book! Read it on your next plane ride and begin your journey of differentiation and transformation with the inspirational and executable guidance it offers.
13 people found this helpful

K. Weisel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Do you wonder why improvements are not improving an overall capability?
28 March 2018 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
If Continuous Delivery, DevOps Handbook, and other like books are technical required reading, this book should be managerial required reading. Accelerate highlights the business value for maturing a DevOps capability by covering a new way to measure software delivery. The perspective I obtained from Accelerate is there is a science to identify the right work at the right time to create a smarter SDLC. The point is, it isn't really DevOps, but BizDevSecOps, working in a Generative culture of harmony bliss.
15 people found this helpful