Gene Kim - The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data

The
Unicorn
Project

Titles by Gene Kim

Fiction

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win (2013), co-authored with Kevin Behr and George Spafford

The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data

Non-Fiction

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations (2018), co-authored with Nicole Forsgren, PhD, and Jez Humble

Beyond The Phoenix Project: The Origin and Evolution of DevOps (Audio) (2018), co-authored with John Willis

The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations (2016), co-authored with Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and John Willis

Visible Ops Security: Achieving Common Security and IT Operations Objectives in 4 Practical Steps (2008), co-authored with Paul Love and George Spafford

The Visible Ops Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps (2005), co-authored with Kevin Behr and George Spafford

The Unicorn Project

A Novel about Developers,
Digital Disruption, and
Thriving in the Age of Data

Gene Kim

IT Revolution
Portland, OR

25 NW 23rd Pl, Suite 6314

Portland, OR 97210

Copyright 2019 by Gene Kim

All rights reserved, for information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, IT Revolution Press, LLC, 25 NW 23rd Pl, Suite 6314, Portland, OR 97210

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Book design by Devon Smith Creative

Cover image by eBoy
Cover design by Joy Stauber, Stauber Brand Studio
Author Photograph by Anna Mayer Photography

Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data

Available Upon Request

ISBN: 978-1942788768

eBook ISBN: 978-1942788775

Kindle ISBN: 978-1942788782

Web PDF ISBN: 978-1942788799

Publishers note: Portions of this book were based on talks and articles by different thinkers and industry leaders with their permission and are included in the references of this book.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases or for information on booking authors for an event, please visit our website at www.ITRevolution.com.

THE UNICORN PROJECT

Dedication

To my dad, Byung Kim (19372019), who really, really wanted me to get this book done.

To the loves of my life: my wife, Margueritte, and our three sons, Reid, Parker, and Grant, who also really, really wanted me to get this book done.

To the achievements of the DevOps Enterprise scenius, which this book is inspired by and celebrates.

Note to the Reader

The Unicorn Project takes place in the present day, and is a companion novel to The Phoenix Project (which also takes place in the present day). The events from both novels take place concurrently, although certain situational elements of The Unicorn Project have been altered to account for changes in our industry.

While both books are about Parts Unlimited, The Unicorn Project was written to be a standalone bookthere is absolutely no need to read or re-read The Phoenix Project first! (You may recognize some characters from The Phoenix Project but then again, dont worry if you dont!)

Because the two books were written six years apart, there may be some suspension of disbelief requiredfor example, everyones awareness of the Retail Apocalypse and the use of ride-sharing (Uber, Lyft) is much higher now than it was when The Phoenix Project was written.

For those who need some concrete waypoints, the characters who appeared in The Phoenix Project are indicated as such in the cast of characters, and there is a rough timeline of the two books provided as an endnote (beware, there may be spoilers!).

Parts Unlimited Employee Directory

REDSHIRTS

Maxine Chambers, Developer Lead, Architect

Kurt Reznick, QA Manager

Cranky Dave Brinkley, Developer Lead

Shannon Corman, Security Engineer

Adam Flynn, QA Engineer

Dwayne Cox, Lead Infrastructure Engineer

Brent Geller, Ops Lead

JUNIOR OFFICERS

Randy Keyes, Dev Manager

Purna Sathyaraj, QA and Release Manager

Rick Willis, QA Manager

William Mason, Director of QA

Wes Davis, Director of Distributed Technology Operations

Patty McKee, Director of IT Service Support

BRIDGE CREW

Steve Masters, CEO, Acting CIO

Dick Landry, CFO

Sarah Moulton, SVP of Retail Operations

Chris Allers, VP of Application Development

Kirsten Fingle, Director of Project Management

Maggie Lee, Senior Director of Retail Program Management

Bill Palmer, VP of IT Operations

John Pesche, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

STARFLEET COMMAND

Alan Perez, New Board Director, Operating Partner, Wayne-Yokohama Equity Partners

Bob Strauss, Lead Director, Former Chairman, Former CEO

Erik Reid, Prospective Board Director

Indicates characters who appear in The Phoenix Project .

PROLOGUE

Tuesday, September 2

To fellow employees of Parts Unlimited,

Early this morning, several thousand timecards were corrupted due to a technical failure, mostly affecting employees and contractors in our manufacturing facilities and retail stores.

My goal is to ensure that everyone gets paid as soon as possible. Anyone who was underpaid should get a check in the next twenty-four hours.

As CEO, my job is to ensure that we fulfill our obligations to our employees, who make the daily work of this organization possible. Without you, we would not be able to serve our customers, who depend on us to keep their cars running to conduct their daily lives.

I apologize to you and everyone who depends on you for the problems and inconveniences this payroll issue causes. I commit to you that we will provide all necessary help, including communicating with any bill collectors, banks, etc.

At the bottom of this email you will find a list of Frequently Asked Questions from HR and Business Operations. If you are not getting help quickly enough, please email me or call me on my office phone anytime.

In the meantime, our top priority is to understand what factors led to this failure, and we will do whatever it takes to make sure that it doesnt happen again.

Steve Masters,
CEO, Parts Unlimited

All

Because of the high-profile nature of the payroll outage, we have conducted a thorough root-cause analysis. We have concluded that it was due to both human error and a technology failure. We have taken decisive actions to ensure that it will not happen again. The person responsible has been reassigned to a role where they can no longer affect production outcomes.