The best books for practical advice on software development

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.

You’ve heard of the title, now read the book.

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. 

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.

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.

I love this book so much. Warning: it’s academic.

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.