Fans pick 100 books like The Human Side of Enterprise

By Douglas McGregor,

Here are 100 books that The Human Side of Enterprise fans have personally recommended if you like The Human Side of Enterprise. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

Yehonathan Sharvit Author Of Data-Oriented Programming

From my list on become a great developer.

Why am I passionate about this?

I boast a two-decade-long career in the software industry. Over the years, I have diligently honed my programming skills across a multitude of languages, including JavaScript, C++, Java, Ruby, and Clojure. Throughout my career, I have taken on various management roles, from Team Leader to VP of Engineering. No matter the role, the thing I have enjoyed the most is to make complex topics easy to understand.

Yehonathan's book list on become a great developer

Yehonathan Sharvit Why did Yehonathan love this book?

This book fundamentally changed how I think about business processes and problem-solving. I was drawn into the story of a plant manager struggling to save his factory and found Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints incredibly insightful for me as a programmer inside a development team.

The narrative format made complex concepts easy to understand and apply. I learned to identify and address bottlenecks in any system, which has been invaluable in both professional and personal contexts. Despite being a business book, I found it engaging and applicable to my day-to-day challenges as a programmer. 

By Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeffrey Cox,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Goal as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*A Graphic Novel version of this title is now available: "The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel"

30th Anniversary Edition. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal, a gripping novel, is transforming management thinking throughout the world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors. Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by…


Book cover of Out of the Crisis

Steve Fenton Author Of Web Operations Dashboards, Monitoring, & Alerting

From my list on DevOps from before DevOps was invented.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a programmer and technical author at Octopus Deploy and I'm deeply interested in DevOps. Since the 1950s, people have been studying software delivery in search of better ways of working. We’ve seen many revolutions since Lincoln Labs first introduced us to phased delivery, with lightweight methods transforming how we wrote software at the turn of the century. My interest in DevOps goes beyond my enthusiasm for methods in general, because we now have a great body of research that adds to our empirical observations on the ways we work.

Steve's book list on DevOps from before DevOps was invented

Steve Fenton Why did Steve love this book?

Before Agile and Lean had rocked the software development industry, William Deming was busy forging this new world of work.

Out of the Crisis is predominantly a management book, but it’s really the spark that started the lightweight movement in software delivery. A key concept in the book is how to identify the work system's performance, separate from the performance of individuals.

By W. Edwards Deming,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Out of the Crisis as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Essential reading for managers and leaders, this is the classic work on management, problem solving, quality control, and more—based on the famous theory, 14 Points for Management

In his classic Out of the Crisis, W. Edwards Deming describes the foundations for a completely new and transformational way to lead and manage people, processes, and resources. Translated into twelve languages and continuously in print since its original publication, it has proved highly influential. Research shows that Deming’s approach has high levels of success and sustainability. Readers today will find Deming’s insights relevant, significant, and effective in business thinking and practice. This…


Book cover of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

Mike McQuaid Author Of Git in Practice

From my list on becoming a great open source software engineer.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a professional software engineer and maintaining open-source software for 16 years. My work on open source has been heavily informed by industry best practises and my work on proprietary software has been heavily informed by open source best practises. Without these books, I’d be a worse engineer on many dimensions. Some of them may feel antiquated but all are still full of relevant wisdom for every open-source (and proprietary) software engineer today.

Mike's book list on becoming a great open source software engineer

Mike McQuaid Why did Mike love this book?

This is the oldest book on my list and is the most underrated. It describes, with serious rigour and detail, how to run more effective software projects and teams.

Most of this advice has been ignored by most of the industry for most of the time but it’s a big part of the reason I’ve worked from home for 14 years and am as productive as I am today.

By Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Peopleware as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Demarco and Lister demonstrate that the major issues of software development are human, not technical. Their answers aren't easy--just incredibly successful. New second edition features eight all-new chapters. Softcover. Previous edition: c1987. DLC: Management.


Book cover of Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change

Steve Fenton Author Of Web Operations Dashboards, Monitoring, & Alerting

From my list on DevOps from before DevOps was invented.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a programmer and technical author at Octopus Deploy and I'm deeply interested in DevOps. Since the 1950s, people have been studying software delivery in search of better ways of working. We’ve seen many revolutions since Lincoln Labs first introduced us to phased delivery, with lightweight methods transforming how we wrote software at the turn of the century. My interest in DevOps goes beyond my enthusiasm for methods in general, because we now have a great body of research that adds to our empirical observations on the ways we work.

Steve's book list on DevOps from before DevOps was invented

Steve Fenton Why did Steve love this book?

The importance of Extreme Programming can’t be overstated.

Kent Beck created one of the few Agile methods that captured not just a process for managing work, but a set of practices that would keep your software manageable in the long run. Shortly after this book was published, the Agile Manifesto was created.

You might say, “the rest is history”, except the industry lost its way for a decade. Extreme Programming was revived in Dave Farley and Jez Humble’s Continuous Delivery – now a vital part of DevOps. The State of DevOps report has validated at least half of the Extreme Programming practices, and Continuous Delivery brings it to the fore once more.

By Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Extreme Programming Explained as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"In this second edition of Extreme Programming Explained, Kent Beck organizes and presents five years' worth of experiences, growth, and change revolving around XP. If you are seriously interested in understanding how you and your team can start down the path of improvement with XP, you must read this book."

- Francesco Cirillo, Chief Executive Officer, XPLabs S.R.L. "The first edition of this book told us what XP was-it changed the way many of us think about software development. This second edition takes it farther and gives us a lot more of the 'why' of XP, the motivations and the…


Book cover of A Seat at the Table: IT Leadership in the Age of Agility

Marcus Hammarberg Author Of Salvation: The Bungsu Story

From my list on leadership and change management.

Why am I passionate about this?

Get agile to work in practice - is my motto. This led me to take interest in Kanban, Lean, TDD, Specification by example, cloud and serverless technologies. I have more than 20 years experience of doing agile and helping companies small and large, primarily in Sweden. Between 2014 and 2016 I worked for the Salvation Army in Indonesia to help the health services there to become more effective. Between 2018-2023 I created a bootcamp for the School of Applied Technology where we trained the next generation of agile developers. I have presented at many international conferences in Europe and Asia and I've written two books, Kanban in Action and Salvation: The Bungsu Story.

Marcus' book list on leadership and change management

Marcus Hammarberg Why did Marcus love this book?

A Seat at the Table is a wonderful book about how the role of tech leaders in general and CIO specifically have changed dramatically over the last decades.

From a cost center where spending should be kept to an absolute minimum, with a strong focus on hardware to an enabling role that drives and innovate business. Mark Schwartz guides us through these changes in his normal entertaining way.

I've rarely (never) laughed out loud from a business book but this one did that for me.

By Mark Schwartz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Seat at the Table as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Agile, Lean, and DevOps approaches are radical game changers, providing a fundamentally different way to think about how IT fits into the enterprise, how IT leaders lead, and how IT can harness technology to accomplish the objectives of the enterprise. But honest and open conversations are not taking place between management and Agile delivery teams.

In A Seat at the Table, CIO Mark Schwartz explores the role of IT leadership as it is now and opens the door to reveal IT leadership as it should be-an integral part of the value creation engine. With an easy style, Schwartz reveals that…


Book cover of Infrastructure as Code: Dynamic Systems for the Cloud Age

Yevgeniy Brikman Author Of Fundamentals of DevOps and Software Delivery: A Hands-On Guide to Deploying and Managing Software in Production

From my list on practical, hands-on books on DevOps and software delivery.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve spent more than a decade working on infrastructure, from my early days at LinkedIn, where we had to do a massive DevOps transformation to save the company, to co-founding Gruntwork, where I had the opportunity to work with hundreds of companies on their software delivery practices. From all of this, I can say the following with certainty: the DevOps best practices that a handful of the top tech companies have figured out are not filtering down to the rest of the industry. This is making the entire software industry slower, less effective, and less secure—and I see it as my mission to fix that.

Yevgeniy's book list on practical, hands-on books on DevOps and software delivery

Yevgeniy Brikman Why did Yevgeniy love this book?

This is a book for practitioners, by a practitioner, full of practical learnings that I was able to start using in my work immediately.

I especially appreciated the parts teaching the core principles of infrastructure as code (e.g., systems are disposable, consistent, can easily be reproduced, etc.), core practices of infrastructure as code (e.g., use definition files, self-documented systems and processes, version all the things, etc.), and the idea of antifragile systems (rather than just systems that you prevent from breaking) and autonomic systems (rather than just automated systems).

By Kief Morris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Infrastructure as Code as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Six years ago, Infrastructure as Code was a new concept. Today, as even banks and other conservative organizations plan moves to the cloud, development teams for companies worldwide are attempting to build large infrastructure codebases. With this practical book, Kief Morris of ThoughtWorks shows you how to effectively use principles, practices, and patterns pioneered by DevOps teams to manage cloud-age infrastructure.

Ideal for system administrators, infrastructure engineers, software developers, team leads, and architects, this updated edition demonstrates how you can exploit cloud and automation technology to make changes easily, safely, quickly, and responsibly. You'll learn how to define everything as…


Book cover of Practice of Cloud System Administration, The: DevOps and SRE Practices for Web Services, Volume 2

Yevgeniy Brikman Author Of Fundamentals of DevOps and Software Delivery: A Hands-On Guide to Deploying and Managing Software in Production

From my list on practical, hands-on books on DevOps and software delivery.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve spent more than a decade working on infrastructure, from my early days at LinkedIn, where we had to do a massive DevOps transformation to save the company, to co-founding Gruntwork, where I had the opportunity to work with hundreds of companies on their software delivery practices. From all of this, I can say the following with certainty: the DevOps best practices that a handful of the top tech companies have figured out are not filtering down to the rest of the industry. This is making the entire software industry slower, less effective, and less secure—and I see it as my mission to fix that.

Yevgeniy's book list on practical, hands-on books on DevOps and software delivery

Yevgeniy Brikman Why did Yevgeniy love this book?

This book felt like a chance to sit with a few experienced Ops people and hear their war stories.

The book is full of concrete, actionable learnings that are essential for running software, including operational requirements (e.g., configuration, draining, hot swaps, feature toggles, graceful degradation, etc.), software architecture (e.g., three-tier web service, four-tier web service, load balancing models etc.), scaling patterns (e.g., horizontal duplication, service splits, caching, etc.), resiliency patterns (software vs hardware resiliency, spare capacity, failure domains, etc.), and much more.

I loved being able to pick up decades of experience and hard-won knowledge by just flipping through a few pages of a book! 

By Thomas Limoncelli, Strata Chalup, Christina Hogan

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Practice of Cloud System Administration, The as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"There's an incredible amount of depth and thinking in the practices described here, and it's impressive to see it all in one place."

-Win Treese, coauthor of Designing Systems for Internet Commerce

The Practice of Cloud System Administration, Volume 2, focuses on "distributed" or "cloud" computing and brings a DevOps/SRE sensibility to the practice of system administration. Unsatisfied with books that cover either design or operations in isolation, the authors created this authoritative reference centered on a comprehensive approach.

Case studies and examples from Google, Etsy, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and other industry giants are explained in practical ways that…


Book cover of Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth

Jason Falls Author Of Winfluence: Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand

From my list on word of mouth marketing.

Why am I passionate about this?

Jason Falls is an award-winning marketing strategist, author of three books, and host of two marketing-related podcasts. He has been listed as one of the most influential voices in the world of social media and influencer marketing.

Jason's book list on word of mouth marketing

Jason Falls Why did Jason love this book?

It had been a few years since a book on word of mouth marketing hit the new release shelf. Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin broke it with 2019’s Talk Triggers. This is the most current great book about word of mouth marketing and the first to really dive deep into how social media plays into good WOM. Backed by original research, Baer’s brilliance, and Lemin’s insightful analyses, you can’t put this book down not having learned something that will make you smarter.

By Jay Baer, Daniel Lemin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Talk Triggers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Talk Triggers is the definitive, practical guide on how to use bold operational differentiators to create customer conversations, written by best-selling authors and marketing experts Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin.

Word of mouth is directly responsible for 19% of all purchases, and influences as much as 90%. Every human on earth relies on word of mouth to make buying decisions. Yet even today, fewer than 1% of companies have an actual strategy for generating these crucial customer conversations. Talk Triggers provides that strategy in a compelling, relevant, timely book that can be put into practice immediately, by any business.

The…


Book cover of Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization

Bruno Hilgart Author Of French Fry Leadership: How to Attain Profits Through Serving People

From my list on creating highly motivated, self-sufficient teams.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been blessed in my career, beginning as a 16-year-old, being an assistant manager at 17, a general manager at 20, and the face of the franchise at the age of 30 for over 16 years. This has led to me learning how to get people more motivated to perform their work than they ever thought possible when they accepted the position. I spent over 30 years literally “growing up” with this company and in this business, having been exposed to some of the best companies within their respective industries, learning how they source, on-board, train, and retain their team members, as well as some of the most influential motivational speakers throughout the world.

Bruno's book list on creating highly motivated, self-sufficient teams

Bruno Hilgart Why did Bruno love this book?

This book was one of a few “game changers” in my career. In fact, we used this book to “gung ho!” our entire company of managers/leaders.

The premise of the book is how to create worthwhile work through the balance of cash and congratulations. It is a heartwarming and compelling story about a new manager of a factory that had poor results throughout except for one department that always met/exceeded their goals.

The new manager is taught by the department head the reasons why this department had so much success through 3 concepts: 1. The spirit of the squirrel 2. The way of the beaver 3. The gift of the goose. 

By Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With a new foreword by Ken Blanchard

An invaluable new strategy for creating enthusiastic employees, from the author of the bestselling The One Minute Manager.

Every day thousands of uninspired employees trudge to work - often dooming their companies to failure with their lack of enthusiasm.

Drawing on over 20 years' experience of working with hundreds of corporations across the US - including America Online, Eastman Kodak, General Motors, Hershey Chocolate and Microsoft - Blanchard reveals a sure-fire strategy for boosting employee enthusiasm, productivity and performance.

Gung Ho! presents a simple system for inspiring employees. Based on three core ideas:…


Book cover of Human Resource Champions

Jon Younger Author Of Agile Talent: How to Source and Manage Outside Experts

From my list on talent management.

Why am I passionate about this?

The future of talent management is now. I’m a teacher, consultant, and board member who is deeply interested in the social and economic impact of the freelance revolution. Millions of people around the world are now working for themselves as independent professionals or “solopreneurs”. Millions more are taking on freelance assignments to augment their income or increase their expertise and experience. Technology makes it possible for professionals in many fields to work remotely and free themselves from the limitations of their local economy. These benefits organizations by offering greater access to talent and gives professionals greater access to opportunity. 

Jon's book list on talent management

Jon Younger Why did Jon love this book?

In a recent survey of HR leaders, 80% mentioned that they were continuing to organize their HR department based on the “Ulrich” model. Is there a more impressive recommendation for the impact of this book, and Dave’s research and writing? In HR Champions, Ulrich points out the importance of three types of HR work: business partners, specialists, and shared services. In a recent HR Management article, that model was expanded to include a fourth category: project management. Technology is obviously a much bigger factor in HR work since 1996 when the book was first published. But, this oldie but goodie has aged extraordinarily well and continues to be relevant and insightful. If you are in HR or interested in talent management at scale, this book has to be on your list.

By Dave Ulrich,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Human Resource Champions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The author argues that the roles of human resource professionals must be redefined to meet the competitive challenges organizations face today and into the future. He provides a framework that identifies four distinct roles of human resource professionals: strategic player, administrative expert, employee champion, and change agent. He includes many examples to demonstrate that human resource professionals must operate in all four areas simultaneously in order to contribute fully. He urges a shift of these professionals' mentality from "what I do" to "what I deliver" and makes specific recommendations for how individuals in human resources can partner with line managers…


Book cover of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Book cover of Out of the Crisis
Book cover of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,580

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in management, psychology, and presidential biography?

Management 147 books
Psychology 1,974 books