It is one more book review after The DevOps handbook, The Phoenix Project, Them Accelerate on my blog. “The Goal” by Goldratt is like a natural next step after reading the mentioned books.

Professionally I have nothing to do with plants and any hardware industry, I am connected with software development. But over fifteen years ago I worked in a quite big plant as a warehouse worker and I saw industry from the inside. This experience probably allowed me to better understand some problems Alex Rogo and his gang must to deal with. In my opinion, those problems and consequences are described in easy to understand form. The title “The Goal” is explained very shortly after starting the book and I must admit it was not clear to me what it is before reaching this page of the book. Spoiler alert! The goal of every company is to make money. Nothing less, nothing more. Simple, right?

On later parts of book Theory of Constraints is formed together with five rules on how to deal with bottlenecks. These rules are so common that should fit into every industry, all you need is only to find a connection between them and your environment. The metaphor of the working process and scout hike was brilliant, showing all its nuances and complexity of possible obstacles.

I liked also the “personal thread” of Alex Rogo family. His personal problems should induce reflection in every reader about work-life balance. I found confirmation in “The Goal” that some of the techniques I used in the last couple of months was right and it should be continued. That is very rewarding.

I recommend this book to all interested in process optimization and managers. If you are working, like me, in software development I think you should choose The Phoenix Project which is very much like The Goal but more focused on IT.