Introducing: The 12-Week Challenge - A New Fiction Series
I’m trying something completely different with PeopleSoftCloud.com, and I need you to tell me if I’ve lost my mind.
Starting next week, I’m launching The 12-Week Challenge - a twelve-part fictional series about an IT Manager named Maya Chen who makes a desperate bet: give her twelve weeks to prove PeopleSoft can be modernized, or her team will stop resisting the SaaS migration that’s already been decided.
Yes, you read that right. Fiction. On a PeopleSoft blog.
Why Fiction?
Here’s the thing: I’ve written dozens of technical posts about Infrastructure-as-Code, CI/CD pipelines, cloud migration strategies, and DevOps transformations. They’re useful. They’re accurate. They’re also… kind of boring.
You know what’s not boring? Stories.
Stories about the DBA who’s terrified that managed database services will make him obsolete. About the junior admin who discovers she’s actually brilliant at Python. About the CIO who wants someone to tell him the truth instead of what consultants think he wants to hear.
The technical challenges facing PeopleSoft teams aren’t just technical; they’re human. And the best way I know to explore the human dimension is through narrative.
What You’ll Get Each Week
Every Thursday for the next twelve weeks, I’ll publish a new chapter of The 12-Week Challenge. Each episode will:
Tell a compelling story - Maya and her team face a different modernization challenge each week, with real stakes, real conflicts, and real character development
Deliver actionable technical content - Every chapter ends with a concrete technical takeaway you can implement in your environment.
Challenge the SaaS narrative - Through Maya’s journey, we’ll examine why “rip and replace” isn’t the only option, and often isn’t the best option.
Think of it as a PeopleSoft modernization playbook disguised as a novel. Or a novel that happens to teach you Infrastructure-as-Code. I honestly don’t know what to call it.
The 12-Week Arc
Week 1-3: Assessment and foundations (IaC, automation, team dynamics)
Week 4-6: Observability and CI/CD (modern operational practices)
Week 7-9: Database, security, and integration modernization
Week 10-12: Cost validation, scaling, and the final presentation
Each chapter stands alone as a useful technical essay. But read together, they form a complete narrative about organizational transformation.
Chapter 1 Drops Next Week
Next Thursday, you’ll meet Maya Chen in “The Ultimatum” - the day her CIO tells her they’re migrating to SaaS, and the day she makes the riskiest proposal of her career.
You’ll also get the TCO framework she builds to prove her case—a real, detailed methodology for comparing PeopleSoft modernization costs against SaaS migration costs. The kind of analysis consultants charge $150K to produce, except actually honest.
Is This Crazy?
Probably. I don’t know any other enterprise software blogs doing serialized fiction. But I also don’t see another way to capture what it actually feels like to modernize PeopleSoft. The resistance, the breakthroughs, the moments where you realize your team is capable of way more than anyone (including them) believed.
If you want traditional technical content, don’t worry; I’ll still publish my Executive Playbook series and standalone technical deep-dives. But on Thursdays? Thursdays belong to Maya.
One Request
If you read Chapter 1 next week and think, “This is ridiculous, stick to technical content,” tell me. If you read it and think “holy shit, this is exactly what our team is going through,” also tell me.
I’m genuinely experimenting here. This could be the best thing I’ve done with this blog, or a spectacular failure. Either way, I’m committed to all twelve weeks.
Subscribe if you haven’t already. Next Thursday, we meet Maya Chen and find out if twelve weeks is enough time to save a platform, a team, and a career.
Let’s find out together.
P.S. - Seriously, what do I call this? “Technical fiction”? “A PeopleSoft novella”? “Edutainment for IT managers”? I’m open to suggestions.
P.P.S. - Yes, Maya’s challenges are based on real scenarios from real PeopleSoft modernization projects. Yes, the technical content is production-tested. No, Maya Chen is not based on any specific person, though she’s definitely based on every modernization champion I’ve ever worked with.