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Favorite Books

These are my favorite books about software engineering, often focused on building high performance engineering teams and cultures.

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The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project

A novel about transformational leadership in technology

The DevOps Handbook

The DevOps Handbook

A pragmatic technical guide to implementing ideas from Accelerate

On Writing Well

On Writing Well

The practical guide to non-fiction writing

Accelerate

Accelerate

The most important book on software delivery performance

Peopleware

Peopleware

A holistic and people-first view of software engineering management

Ask Your Developer

Ask Your Developer

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

Masters of Doom

Masters of Doom

The story behind Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, and Doom

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Rebirth of a struggling leadership team

Making Work Visible

Making Work Visible

Fantastic description of using kanban boards to improve software delivery

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

Unlocking the Clubhouse

Unlocking the Clubhouse

Research on the gender gap in computer science

Founders at Work

Founders at Work

Startup stories and tech history

Clean Architecture

Clean Architecture

Pragmatic advice for transforming readable code into a solid architecture

Code Complete

Code Complete

The book every junior to mid-level engineer should read to improve their code

Difficult Conversations

Difficult Conversations

Pragmatic advice with examples for initiating and executing difficult conversations

Range

Range

Developing expertise through sampling periods, slow learning, and breadth

Clean Code

Clean Code

The book on code quality I wish every engineering job applicant would read

The Mythical Man Month

The Mythical Man Month

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

Extreme Programming Explained

Extreme Programming Explained

Principles and practices of agile development

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

Hackers & Painters

Hackers & Painters

The culture and languages of makers

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Quality is hard to define but we know it exists somewhere

Brotopia

Brotopia

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

First, Break All the Rules

First, Break All the Rules

Leveraging talent to drive individual and team performance