Accelerate - The Science of DevOps: **Building & Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations ***Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim*
How can we apply technology to drive business value? For years, we've been told that the performance of software delivery teams doesn't matter―that it can't provide a competitive advantage to our companies. Through four years of groundbreaking research to include data collected from the State of DevOps reports conducted with Puppet, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim set out to find a way to measure software delivery performance―and what drives it―using rigorous statistical methods. This book presents both the findings and the science behind that research, making the information accessible for readers to apply in their own organizations.
Readers will discover how to measure the performance of their teams, and what capabilities they should invest in to drive higher performance. This book is ideal for management at every level.
**An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management** Will Larson
An Elegant Puzzle orients around the particular challenges of engineering management--from sizing teams to technical debt to succession planning--and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Will Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management that leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes can apply. He balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.
**Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager** James Stanier
Going from engineer to manager doesn’t have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You’ll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to.
Start with your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You’ll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics.
Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? This book will show you how.
Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach Jerry Weinberg
A personalized guide to developing the qualities that make a successful leader. It identifies which leadership skills are most effective in a technical environment and why technical people have characteristic trouble in making the transition to a leadership role.
A book for anyone who is a leader, who wants to be a leader, or who thinks only people with 'leader' or 'manager' in their title are leaders. The book can be described briefly as a guide to developing personal leadership potential, but it is much more than that . . . it is filled with useful insights into personal growth as a professional. Readers say it's always fascinating, and "focuses our attention on what it takes to make teams of thinking technical people work effectively together." Moreover, they say "it's always extremely practical and down-to-earth.
<aside> 💡 Despite its age (written in 1986, the year I was born 🤯), this book has aged extremely well and is a classic in technical leadership literature that is still highly worth reading today.
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**Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management** *Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby*
Full of tips and practical advice on the most important aspects of management, this is one of those books that can make a lasting and immediate impact on your career.
Learn to be a better manager with this guide. You'll follow along as Sam, a manager just brought on board, who learns the ropes and deals with his new team over the course of his first eight weeks on the job. From scheduling and managing resources to helping team members grow and prosper, you'll be there as Sam makes it happen. You'll find practical tips covering:
Elastic Leadership: Growing self-organizing teams Roy Osherove
Elastic leadership is a framework and philosophy that can help you as you manage day-to-day and long-term challenges and strive to create the elusive self-organizing team. It is about understanding that your leadership needs to change based on which phase you discover that your team is in. This book provides you with a set of values, techniques, and practices to use in your leadership role.
Your team looks to you for guidance. You have to mediate heated debates. The team is constantly putting out fires instead of doing the right things, the right way. Everyone seems to want to do things correctly, but nobody seems to be doing so. This is where leaders get stuck. It's time to get unstuck! Elastic leadership is a novel approach that helps you adapt your leadership style to the phase your team is in, so you can stay in step as things change.
**High Output Management** Andy Grove
In this legendary business book and Silicon Valley staple, the former chairman and CEO of Intel shares his perspective on how to build and run a company.
Grove covers techniques for creating highly productive teams, demonstrating methods of motivation that lead to peak performance—throughout, High Output Management is a practical handbook for navigating real-life business scenarios and a powerful management manifesto with the ability to revolutionize the way we work.
**Leading Snowflakes** Oren Ellenbogen
New to Engineering Management? You can do better than "fake it till you make it". We all started our professional journey as a "Maker" – a designer, programmer or tester. Our ability to make things is what brought us so far. We all love the feeling of getting things done. This is why when we go from a "Maker" into a "Manager" role, we so often fall back to our comfort zone. We're neglecting managerial responsibilities working to complete yet another task instead. It's the power of old habits.
But let's face it – you were NOT being promoted to a managerial position to increase your own productivity. Your job as a manager is to amplify your teammates. You were never taught the subtle art of building a team or leading people. As if this isn't enough, these unique individuals (hence "snowflakes") in your team tend to be incredibly smart, analytical, opinionated and ambitious. You know, engineers.
Leading Snowflakes offers you proven tools and practices for improving your management skills that you can implement – starting today.
<aside> 💬 „When I first became a manager, I was hungry to learn as much as I could. If this book had existed back then, I would have bought 3 copies.” — Eli Goodman, former Director of Engineering at Etsy
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**Managing Humans** Michael Lopp
Read hilarious stories with serious lessons that Michael Lopp extracts from his varied and sometimes bizarre experiences as a manager at Apple, Pinterest, Palantir, Netscape, Symantec, Slack, and Borland. Many of the stories first appeared in primitive form in Lopp’s perennially popular blog, Rands in Repose.
Lopp's straight-from-the-hip style is unlike that of any other writer on management and leadership. He pulls no punches and tells stories he probably shouldn't. But they are magically instructive and yield Lopp’s trenchant insights on leadership that cut to the heart of the matter—whether it's dealing with your boss, handling a slacker, hiring top guns, or seeing a knotty project through to completion.
**Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams** *Mickey W. Mantle, Ron Lichty*
Drawing on over 80 years of combined industry experience, the authors share Rules of Thumb, Nuggets of Wisdom, checklists, and other Tools for successfully leading programmers and teams, whether they’re co-located or dispersed worldwide. It has extensive Agile coverage, new approaches to recruitment and onboarding, expanded coverage of handling problem employees, and much more. Whether you’re new to software management or you’ve done it for years, you’ll find indispensable advice for handling your challenges and delivering outstanding software.