Books for software engineers and managers

Books / CTO

CTO Books

Like Engineering Managers, the job of CTO is multi-faceted spanning people, technology, business expectations. But more than managers, we’re faced with the challenge of developing strategy that supports the business. These books touch on all of the topics above because the job of CTO demands broad knowledge.


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The Cold Start Problem
The Cold Start Problem

Driving growth with network effects

Monolith to Microservices
Monolith to Microservices

The tradeoffs and implementation patterns of microservices

The Effective Executive
The Effective Executive

Improve organizational performance through leadership

The Manager's Path
The Manager's Path

The definitive guide to understanding expectations at each level of engineering management

No Rules Rules
No Rules Rules

How Netflix culture and operations support innovation

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
8
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

Conceptual and tactical advice for developing strategies that work

On Change Management
6
On Change Management

Identifying inhibitors and resistors to organizational change

Working Backwards
8
Working Backwards

How Amazon works from the inside

Ask Your Developer
Ask Your Developer

How one world class software company leverages developers to drive business success

On Strategy
6
On Strategy

The key components of strategy and how to differentiate a management technique from strategy

Extreme Programming Explained
Extreme Programming Explained

Principles and practices of agile development

Team Topologies
8
Team Topologies

Structuring software teams and relationships for high effectiveness

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Rebirth of a struggling leadership team

High Growth Handbook
7
High Growth Handbook

Interviews with startup founders, CEOs, and other executives discussing high growth

Doing Agile Right
Doing Agile Right

Developing agile enterprises by extending agile principles to business support functions

The Unicorn Project
The Unicorn Project

A story about rebellion against bureaucracy and corporate politics to delivery customer results

Talent Development Books for Software Leaders
Talent Development Books for Software Leaders

Software engineering is about continuous learning

Books for New Engineering Managers
Books for New Engineering Managers

First-time engineering manager books

Books Explaining the Gender Gap in Software Engineering
Books Explaining the Gender Gap in Software Engineering

Exploring why we don’t see more women in software development

Building Platforms and Multi-sided Marketplaces
Building Platforms and Multi-sided Marketplaces

How platforms and two-sided marketplaces like Airbnb and Lyft are built

Only the Paranoid Survive
7
Only the Paranoid Survive

Recognizing and leading companies through strategic inflection points

Making Work Visible
Making Work Visible

Fantastic description of using kanban boards to improve software delivery

The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project

A novel about transformational leadership in technology

The Score Takes Care of Itself
8
The Score Takes Care of Itself

Leadership lessons told through football stories

Matchmakers
7
Matchmakers

A good introduction to multisided platform thinking

How Google Works
How Google Works

Practical advice on product strategy and people management

Never Split the Difference
Never Split the Difference

Practical guide to everyday negotiations

5 Books to Increase Productivity on Software Engineering Teams
5 Books to Increase Productivity on Software Engineering Teams

Software development metrics and advice to improve productivity and performance

Unlocking the Clubhouse
Unlocking the Clubhouse

Research on the gender gap in computer science

Books on Distributed Systems and Resilience Engineering
Books on Distributed Systems and Resilience Engineering

Build systems to serve more users while increasing reliability and performance

The DevOps Handbook
The DevOps Handbook

A pragmatic devops guide for SREs and developers

Beyond Basketball
7
Beyond Basketball

Leadership stories and lessons from Coach K

Books to Prevent Burnout in High Performance Engineering Teams
Books to Prevent Burnout in High Performance Engineering Teams

Identify the symptoms of burnout within software teams and prevent burnout using these books

Slack
8
Slack

The counterpoint to efficiency in software engineering teams

Accelerate
Accelerate

Metrics on software delivery performance

Difficult Conversations
Difficult Conversations

Pragmatic advice with examples for initiating and executing difficult conversations

Outcomes Over Output
8
Outcomes Over Output

An introduction to outcomes-based thinking and planning

First, Break All the Rules
First, Break All the Rules

Leveraging talent to drive individual and team performance

Range
Range

Developing expertise through sampling periods, slow learning, and breadth

Wooden on Leadership
8
Wooden on Leadership

Lessons on coaching and leadership that easily translate to managing software engineering

Strategy Rules
8
Strategy Rules

An insightful read that’s part history, part business, part technology

Drift into Failure
8
Drift into Failure

How systems fail and our broken mental model for understanding complexity

Peopleware
Peopleware

A holistic and people-first view of software engineering management

The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup

Exploring and implementing the Build-Measure-Learn model

The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Hard Thing About Hard Things

The no-nonsense book about engineering and startup leadership

High Output Management
High Output Management

The engineering management book everyone references



Articles for CTOs

Who Killed the Junior Developer? Five Unusual Suspects.

Who Killed the Junior Developer? Five Unusual Suspects.

An investigation into who killed the junior developer job market

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