
Kill It with Fire
Manage Aging Computer Systems (and Future Proof Modern Ones)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Katie Koster
About this listen
Kill It with Fire examines aging computer systems, the evolution of technology over time, and how organizations can modernize, maintain, and future-proof their current systems.
“Kill it with fire”, the typical first reaction to a legacy system falling into obsolescence, is a knee-jerk approach that often burns through tons of money and time only to result in a less efficient solution. This book offers a far more forgiving modernization framework, laying out smart value-add strategies and proven incremental techniques that work equally well for ancient systems and brand-new ones.
Internationally known for restoring some of the world’s oldest, messiest computer networks to operational excellence, software engineering expert Marianne Bellotti distills key lessons and insights from her experience into practical, research-backed guidance on topics from “chaos” testing solutions to building momentum-driven teams and effective communication structures. Using clear explanations and simple exercises, she’ll help you determine when to modernize, how to organize, what migrations will add the most value, and where to focus your maintenance efforts for maximum impact. With witty, engaging prose, Bellotti explains why new doesn’t always mean better, weaving in illuminating case studies and jaw-dropping anecdotes from her work in the field.
You’ll learn:
- Tips and best practices for assessing architecture and testing assumptions
- How to avoid trends and pick the right modernization solutions for your specific needs
- How to determine whether your migrations will add value before you invest in them
- Critical considerations every organization should weigh before moving data to the cloud
- Team-based strategies and motivational tricks for keeping modernization plans on track
- Key outcomes and checklists for determining when a project is finished
Packed with resources, exercises, and flexible frameworks for organizations of all ages and sizes, Kill It with Fire will give you a vested interest in your technology’s future.
©2021 Marianne Bellotti (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Modern Software Engineering
- Doing What Works to Build Better Software Faster
- By: David Farley
- Narrated by: Amy Gordon
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Modern Software Engineering, continuous delivery pioneer David Farley helps software professionals think about their work more effectively, manage it more successfully, and genuinely improve the quality of their applications, their lives, and the lives of their colleagues.
-
-
Could have been a 1-page bulleted list
- By Elle7se on 12-30-22
By: David Farley
-
Staff Engineer
- Leadership Beyond the Management Track
- By: Will Larson
- Narrated by: Shaula Evans
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior software engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At the career level, your company's career ladder won't require that you work towards the next promotion; being promoted further is an exception rather than expected. This is also when many engineers are first given an opportunity to move into engineering management.
-
-
Great content but some audio issues
- By David M. Tang on 07-08-21
By: Will Larson
-
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
- By: Will Larson
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Getting to the good solutions of complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams, and, ultimately, the success or failure of companies. Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle orients around the particular challenges of engineering management - from sizing teams to technical debt to succession planning - and provides a path to the good solutions.
-
-
Terrible narrator
- By Violet on 06-05-19
By: Will Larson
-
Wiring the Winning Organization
- By: Gene Kim, Steve Spear
- Narrated by: Alex Knox
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In their eagerly awaited book, Kim and Spear bring to light a new theory of high-achieving organizations. They examine how companies solve the most important problems better, faster, and easier than their competitors by quickly and regularly closing the gap between aspirations and real-world success. This book teaches companies that are struggling to perform how to achieve the continual greatness seen in the best of the best.
-
-
Powerful tools and a insights
- By Sean Brooks on 04-06-24
By: Gene Kim, and others
-
Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow
- By: Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais
- Narrated by: Edward Bauer
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Team Topologies is a practical, step-by-step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns. It is a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways are able to evolve with technological and organizational maturity. In Team Topologies, IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help listeners choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization.
-
-
Nice of you’re Amazon or Google
- By Johann D on 06-02-22
By: Matthew Skelton, and others
-
The Unicorn Project
- A Novel About Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data
- By: Gene Kim
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
This is no Phoenix Project
- By SaintHax on 01-10-20
By: Gene Kim
-
Modern Software Engineering
- Doing What Works to Build Better Software Faster
- By: David Farley
- Narrated by: Amy Gordon
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Modern Software Engineering, continuous delivery pioneer David Farley helps software professionals think about their work more effectively, manage it more successfully, and genuinely improve the quality of their applications, their lives, and the lives of their colleagues.
-
-
Could have been a 1-page bulleted list
- By Elle7se on 12-30-22
By: David Farley
-
Staff Engineer
- Leadership Beyond the Management Track
- By: Will Larson
- Narrated by: Shaula Evans
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior software engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At the career level, your company's career ladder won't require that you work towards the next promotion; being promoted further is an exception rather than expected. This is also when many engineers are first given an opportunity to move into engineering management.
-
-
Great content but some audio issues
- By David M. Tang on 07-08-21
By: Will Larson
-
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
- By: Will Larson
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Getting to the good solutions of complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams, and, ultimately, the success or failure of companies. Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle orients around the particular challenges of engineering management - from sizing teams to technical debt to succession planning - and provides a path to the good solutions.
-
-
Terrible narrator
- By Violet on 06-05-19
By: Will Larson
-
Wiring the Winning Organization
- By: Gene Kim, Steve Spear
- Narrated by: Alex Knox
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In their eagerly awaited book, Kim and Spear bring to light a new theory of high-achieving organizations. They examine how companies solve the most important problems better, faster, and easier than their competitors by quickly and regularly closing the gap between aspirations and real-world success. This book teaches companies that are struggling to perform how to achieve the continual greatness seen in the best of the best.
-
-
Powerful tools and a insights
- By Sean Brooks on 04-06-24
By: Gene Kim, and others
-
Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow
- By: Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais
- Narrated by: Edward Bauer
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Team Topologies is a practical, step-by-step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns. It is a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways are able to evolve with technological and organizational maturity. In Team Topologies, IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help listeners choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization.
-
-
Nice of you’re Amazon or Google
- By Johann D on 06-02-22
By: Matthew Skelton, and others
-
The Unicorn Project
- A Novel About Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data
- By: Gene Kim
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
This is no Phoenix Project
- By SaintHax on 01-10-20
By: Gene Kim
-
The DevOps Handbook, Second Edition
- How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations
- By: Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and others
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This award-winning and best-selling business handbook for digital transformation is now fully updated and expanded with the latest research and new case studies! Over the last five years, The DevOps Handbook has been the definitive guide for taking the successes laid out in the best-selling The Phoenix Project and applying them in any organization. Now, with this fully updated and expanded edition, it’s time to take DevOps out of the IT department and apply it across the full business.
-
-
Atrocious
- By Anonymous User on 05-25-22
By: Gene Kim, and others
-
Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations
- By: Nicole Forsgren PhD, Jez Humble, Gene Kim
- Narrated by: Nicole Forsgren
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can we apply technology to drive business value? For years we've been told that the performance of software delivery teams doesn't matter - that it can't provide a competitive advantage to our companies. Through four years of groundbreaking research to include data collected from the State of DevOps reports conducted with Puppet, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim set out to find a way to measure software delivery performance - and what drives it - using rigorous statistical methods.
-
-
Only if you have nothing else to do
- By Gvido on 07-24-18
By: Nicole Forsgren PhD, and others
-
The Phoenix Project
- A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win 5th Anniversary Edition
- By: Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
- Narrated by: Chris Ruen
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, has been tasked with taking on a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill must fix the mess in 90 days, or else Bill’s entire department will be outsourced. With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of the Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined.
-
-
Theory and Practice merged
- By Peter on 11-23-15
By: Gene Kim, and others
-
The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
- Your Journey to Mastery
- By: David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
- Narrated by: Anna Katarina
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt wrote the first edition of this influential book in 1999 to help their clients create better software and rediscover the joy of coding. These lessons have helped a generation of programmers examine the very essence of software development. Now, 20 years later, this new edition re-examines what it means to be a modern programmer. Topics range from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse.
-
-
An excellent and entertaining technical book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-21-20
By: David Thomas, and others
-
The Manager's Path
- A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
- By: Camille Fournier
- Narrated by: Janet Metzger
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal - especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager.
-
-
hard to tell which chapter you're on
- By Mike on 10-04-19
By: Camille Fournier
-
Build
- An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
- By: Tony Fadell
- Narrated by: Tony Fadell, Roger Wayne
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia.
-
-
Best guide for start up founders, ever!!!
- By Curly Beard on 05-28-22
By: Tony Fadell
-
Software Engineering at Google
- Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
- By: Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, Hyrum Wright
- Narrated by: Mark Sando
- Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can software engineers manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing requirements and demands over the length of its life? Based on their experience at Google, software engineers Titus Winters and Hyrum Wright, along with technical writer Tom Manshreck, present a candid and insightful look at how some of the world’s leading practitioners construct and maintain software. This book covers Google’s unique engineering culture, processes, and tools and how these aspects contribute to the effectiveness of an engineering organization.
-
-
not useful
- By Andreas Andersen on 07-21-21
By: Titus Winters, and others
-
Building Microservices
- Designing Fine-Grained Systems
- By: Sam Newman
- Narrated by: Theodore O'Brien
- Length: 21 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As organizations shift from monolithic applications to smaller, self-contained microservices, distributed systems have become more fine-grained. But developing these new systems brings its own host of problems. This expanded second edition takes a holistic view of topics that you need to consider when building, managing, and scaling microservices architectures. Through clear examples and practical advice, author Sam Newman gives everyone from architects and developers to testers and IT operators a firm grounding in the concepts.
-
-
Easy to Understand
- By Anonymous User on 04-27-22
By: Sam Newman
-
The Staff Engineer's Path
- A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change
- By: Tanya Reilly
- Narrated by: Wendy Tremont King
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, companies have rewarded their most effective engineers with management positions. But treating management as the default path for an engineer with leadership ability doesn't serve the industry well—or the engineer. The staff engineer's path allows engineers to contribute at a high level as role models, driving big projects, determining technical strategy, and raising everyone's skills. This in-depth book shows you how to understand your role, manage your time, master strategic thinking, and set the standard for technical work.
-
-
Not for all engineers
- By Dan H on 05-27-24
By: Tanya Reilly
-
Clean Agile
- Back to Basics
- By: Robert C. Martin
- Narrated by: Theodore O'Brien
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly 20 years after the Agile Manifesto was first presented, the legendary Robert C. Martin (“Uncle Bob”) reintroduces Agile values and principles for a new generation - programmers and nonprogrammers alike. Martin, author of Clean Code and other highly influential software development guides, was there at Agile’s founding. Now, in Clean Agile: Back to Basics, he strips away misunderstandings and distractions that over the years have made it harder to use Agile than was originally intended.
-
-
Uncle Bob is at it Again
- By Michael on 03-02-25
By: Robert C. Martin
-
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
- The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
- By: Martin Kleppmann
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lange
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate the diverse data landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of data in modern applications.
-
-
Must read for senior+ software engineers
- By Navid v on 05-29-21
By: Martin Kleppmann
-
Thinking in Systems
- A Primer
- By: Donella H. Meadows
- Narrated by: Tia Rider Sorensen
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, Limits to Growth - the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet - Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world....
-
-
Skip to the Middle
- By John Chambers on 06-20-20
What listeners say about Kill It with Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robbie Holmes
- 06-16-21
Good for practitioners and leaders
This book did a fantastic job explaining the nuances of digital modernization and legacy systems and how they are sometimes more about the organization and they are about the software. Marianne is a smart, pragmatic technical thought leader and we are lucky to have this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-05-21
Great commentary
Excellent perspective on software/system management and maintenance. Gives some insights on how to prevent burnout.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ana Rivas
- 07-19-22
Thank you for no-nonsense honest advice
And thank you for always including the human element in fixing problems, especially the subtle female empowerment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!