I've been in the software engineering profession for over 40 years, working at companies as diverse as Bank Leumi, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Graftek (a CAD startup), Silicon Graphics, Boeing, and Microsoft. As an architect, lead, manager, director, writer, and now career coach, I've been obsessed with finding practical ways to make my work easier, my staff and clients more productive, and our products more delightful. These five books (along with my book and blog) provide proven, time-tested techniques. Each is written clearly with real-life examples, so it is easy to reap the benefits. Smile as you learn to avoid the missteps made by those who coded before you.
With Kanban, every minute you spend on a software project can add value for customers. Think of this book as “Kanban in a box”: open it, read the quickstart guide, and you’re up and running fast. As you gain experience, the book reveals powerful techniques for right-sizing teams, estimating, meeting deadlines, deploying components and services, adapting or evolving from Scrum or traditional Waterfall, and more.
For every step of your journey, you’ll find pragmatic advice, useful checklists, and actionable lessons. This truly is “Kanban in a box”: all you need to deliver breakthrough value and quality.
The Pragmatic Programmer provides every tip an individual developer needs to produce high-quality code on schedule.
I had been a professional software engineer for 20 years when this book was first published. Every clever technique I had learned appeared in the book, along with a bunch of new ones.
It was so clear and useful, and now it is considered a classic.
"One of the most significant books in my life." -Obie Fernandez, Author, The Rails Way
"Twenty years ago, the first edition of The Pragmatic Programmer completely changed the trajectory of my career. This new edition could do the same for yours." -Mike Cohn, Author of Succeeding with Agile , Agile Estimating and Planning , and User Stories Applied
". . . filled with practical advice, both technical and professional, that will serve you and your projects well for years to come." -Andrea Goulet, CEO, Corgibytes, Founder, LegacyCode.Rocks
". . . lightning does strike twice, and this book is proof." -VM…
Yes, it was first published back in 1975, but when you read this collection of essays on different aspects of software design and production, you’ll be amazed (and a bit disheartened) at how common the problems still are and how relevant the advice remains.
The title essay is the star of the book, explaining why adding team members slows down software production instead of speeding it up.
But the other essays are also on point, discussing how to keep your best engineers productive, drive proper design, clearly communicate and collaborate across organizations, provide appropriate documentation, manage big projects, and deliver quality software.
Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system. Now, 20 years after the initial publication of his book, Brooks has revisited his original ideas and added new thoughts and advice, both for readers already familiar with his work and for readers discovering it for the first time.
Not only does this book provide insight into the planning and development of one of the first visual IDEs, it’s overflowing with hilarious, profound, and pragmatic real-life lessons for how to manage a software team and deliver a complex project.
As a product of its time, the writing isn’t always politically correct. However, many of the lessons and memes are still part of our vernacular today: Don’t flip the bozo bit; If you build it, it will ship; and [Love] the customer.
Some of its lessons should be memes: Beware of [an engineer] in a room, Be an authority, not an authority figure, and Don’t trade a bad date for an equally bad date.
Some sections show their age in our current world of continuous delivery, but few current books have the humor and concise insight of this remarkable work.
Shipping great software can be done, insists McCarthy, and charts, in five sections, the progress from initial design to successful product. McCarthy is a software industry veteran and the director of the Microsoft Visual C++ development group.
This unfortunately titled book reflects my own philosophy and recommendations for managing software engineers.
The title is unfortunate because there’s nothing radical about what the author recommends, at least not to me. The focus is on providing compassionate candor to your staff, caring personally about them while directly challenging them in areas where they should improve.
The first part of the book explains why you should take this approach, including the benefits it delivers. The second part provides clear and specific guidance on how to attain those benefits.
Having been a manager and coach for over 25 years, I’m often asked what management book I recommend. Until now, my choices were too esoteric or too academic. Now, I just recommend Radical Candor.
Featuring a new preface, afterword and Radically Candid Performance Review Bonus Chapter, the fully revised & updated edition of Radical Candor is packed with even more guidance to help you improve your relationships at work.
'Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives.' - Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In.
If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all . . . right?
While this advice may work for home life, as Kim Scott has seen first hand, it is a disaster when adopted…
In each of the four years spanning 2014 to 2017, researchers collected data from 23,000 software engineering practitioners from around the globe. These engineers hailed from over 2,000 organizations, from small startups with fewer than five employees to large enterprises with more than 10,000 employees.
What did the researchers find? High performers use different practices than their peers, and these practices make high performers twice as likely as low performers to exceed goals of profitability, productivity, market share, number of customers, quantity of products and services, operating efficiency, customer satisfaction, and achieving mission objectives.
The book goes on to describe each of these practices in practical terms, clarifying the key aspects of each practice that make it effective.
Accelerate your organization to win in the marketplace.
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. This book presents both the findings and…
This manual addresses the need to ensure that people are at the centre of the organisation. There has never been a timelier reminder of the need to ensure that leading, supporting and developing staff are critical aspects of creating the right organisational culture to grow and develop. Written with sensitivity, it brings together essential learning and underpinning theoretical knowledge and frameworks to promote effective practice.
This is an essential handbook for managers and leaders who want to develop the full potential of their people. It not only covers the fundamental issues of human resource management, but also highlights important topics that organisations find difficult to address, such as empowerment, stress management, mental health, equality, diversity, inclusion, and the promotion of well-being at work.
It is refreshing to come across an HR book that bridges the gap perfectly between the academic theory and the practicality of ‘how to do it'. Dr Neil Thompson takes us on a humanistic journey that genuinely captures the human dimension of people management. This is an extremely helpful manual full of important and practical information about promoting well-being to achieve the best outcome for various everyday people management issues. The easy-to-understand inclusive language of this book calls to anyone interested in people management, meaning this is a perfect book for students, HR leaders, and practitioners. I know I will…
