Books for software engineers and managers

Books / Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager Books

Successful engineering managers deliver for both the business and their people. Many of us pivot into people management without training, fumbling our way through the first few years before hitting a stride.

Great managers break through the inevitable plateau and lead their teams to new heights. These books will help you navigate the waters of people management with an emphasis on fostering a culture of high performance.

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The DevOps Handbook
The DevOps Handbook

A pragmatic devops guide for SREs and developers

Accelerate
Accelerate

Metrics on software delivery performance

Peopleware
Peopleware

A holistic and people-first view of software engineering management

The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project

A novel about transformational leadership in technology

The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup

Exploring and implementing the Build-Measure-Learn model

Never Split the Difference
Never Split the Difference

Practical guide to everyday negotiations

Making Work Visible
Making Work Visible

Fantastic description of using kanban boards to improve software delivery

On Writing Well
On Writing Well

The practical guide to non-fiction writing

Ask Your Developer
Ask Your Developer

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

How Google Works
How Google Works

Practical advice on product strategy and people management

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

The no-nonsense book about engineering and startup leadership

The Manager's Path
The Manager's Path

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

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

Rebirth of a struggling leadership team

Range
Range

Developing expertise through sampling periods, slow learning, and breadth

The Mythical Man Month
The Mythical Man Month

The origin of Brooks’s Law and look into the counterintuitive world of software engineering management

Unlocking the Clubhouse
Unlocking the Clubhouse

Research on the gender gap in computer science

Difficult Conversations
Difficult Conversations

Pragmatic advice with examples for initiating and executing difficult conversations

High Output Management
High Output Management

The engineering management book everyone references

Extreme Programming Explained
Extreme Programming Explained

Principles and practices of agile development

The Unicorn Project
The Unicorn Project

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

The Effective Executive
The Effective Executive

Improve organizational performance through leadership

Staff Engineer
Staff Engineer

Beyond senior engineer on the technical leadership track

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

Leveraging talent to drive individual and team performance

Brotopia
Brotopia

The book I wish everyone would read before pontificating about how to get more women into tech

Prepared
8
Prepared

How students learn and prepare for life

Managing Humans
8
Managing Humans

Cynical but revealing guide to engineering management

Pragmatic Thinking & Learning
8
Pragmatic Thinking & Learning

An introduction to the Dreyfus Model of skill acquisition

The Making of a Manager
8
The Making of a Manager

A pragmatic and human centered introduction for new managers

The Talent Fix
8
The Talent Fix

Pragmatic thinking for talent acquisition leaders and hiring managers

An Elegant Puzzle
8
An Elegant Puzzle

Practical advice on managing software engineering teams

Wooden on Leadership
8
Wooden on Leadership

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

Team Topologies
8
Team Topologies

Structuring software teams and relationships for high effectiveness

The E-Myth Revisited
8
The E-Myth Revisited

The case for systematization and working on the business, not just in the business

Slack
8
Slack

The counterpoint to efficiency in software engineering teams

Drift into Failure
8
Drift into Failure

How systems fail and our broken mental model for understanding complexity

Working Backwards
8
Working Backwards

How Amazon works from the inside

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

Leadership lessons told through football stories

Strategy Rules
8
Strategy Rules

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

Ask Me This Instead
8
Ask Me This Instead

How to interview the company, not just having them interview you

Outcomes Over Output
8
Outcomes Over Output

An introduction to outcomes-based thinking and planning

Beyond Basketball
7
Beyond Basketball

Leadership stories and lessons from Coach K

Thinking in Systems
7
Thinking in Systems

A primer on system thinking through stocks and flows

Technical Recruiting & Hiring
7
Technical Recruiting & Hiring

Tactical guide to candidate evaluation and processing

Flow
7
Flow

The science of being in the zone

Release It!
7
Release It!

Technical primer on resilience engineering

Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
6
Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

Introduction to Engineering Management

It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy At Work
6
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy At Work

Calling BS on workplace heroics that have become standard

Remote
6
Remote

The case for working remotely even after COVID

On Change Management
6
On Change Management

Identifying inhibitors and resistors to organizational change

The Elements of Scrum
6
The Elements of Scrum

Introduction to the mechanics of agile development

Women in Tech
5
Women in Tech

Advice for women joining the tech industry

Leadership Books for Sports Fans
Leadership Books for Sports Fans

Leadershi plessons from the greatest coaches on earth

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

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

Books to Improve Code Testability
Books to Improve Code Testability

How to write code that supports automated testing

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

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



Articles for Engineering Managers

Clean workspaces instead of rewrites

The pragmatic engineer’s alternative to a rewrite

Refactoring is a daily job

Five things that engineering leaders need to understand about refactoring

Who Killed the Junior Developer? Five Unusual Suspects.

An investigation into who killed the junior developer job market

Find your limiting factor for deployment frequency

A quick guide to identifying what’s preventing your team from releasing more

Look for natural talents

An introduction to the Engineering Talent Matrix

Deploy to production on day one

Shipping on the first day is an opportunity to send positive signals to new hires about your engineering culture