The main goal of this article is to share the list of books that are worth reading and practical for the Software Engineering Manager role or similar, where the mix of technical skills and people management comes into play.
There are many interesting books, but I would like to emphasize those published over the last few years. Our industry evolves very quickly. Classic books may still be good and valuable, but considering time limits, modern technologies, and approaches, it’s better to start with something as practical as possible to get up to speed.
Last but not least, I saw so many threads on Twitter where various folks promoted “curated lists of books” without reading a page of any of them. Yes, I read all the mentioned books and even more 🙂 So, I suggest the books I read from cover to cover and tried to apply pieces of advice in practice.
TL;DR
The list of books published recently that I found worth reading:
- Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager
- Debugging Teams: Better Productivity through Collaboration
- The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
- Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
- Leading Effective Engineering Teams
- Radical Candor
- No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
- Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
- An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
- The Missing README: A Guide for the New Software Engineer
Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager
My most loved book is “Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager.” It competes with “The Manager’s Path” in the category of “comprehensive guide.” The book is rather big but not bloated, with an excellent focus on bringing practical advice and sharing the author’s hands-on experience on the path of becoming an engineering manager. Best practices are explained as “tools” you must use and “rules” to follow. The book is written in a “first-person shooter” manner. You start at the beginning of this career path and “attack” the problems you observe. It is easy to read, and interesting to see what will happen next. I would not say it is focused on effectiveness, as stated in the title, but using all presented “tools” should level up you as a manager.
Debugging Teams
Another excellent book, “Debugging Teams,” was written by two Google managers. It’s just ~200 pages long and has many satiric illustrations that make reading easy and fun. I found this book very practical and useful. Despite the fact that it was written by people working in a big tech company, it’s suitable for managers of 3-5 member teams as well. This book is worth reading if you are concerned about the team's productivity and how to improve it. The main theme of the book is an interconnection of three traits: humility (don’t put yourself in the first place), respect (to the team, organization, users), and trust (to the same things). The authors did a great job by providing a lot of examples to demonstrate the influence of all these aspects on the productivity of the team.
The Manager's Path
This book is one of the most popular recommendations. I suggest choosing “The Manager’s Path” if you have time to read only one book. The book covers a wide range of topics and sheds light on the manager’s path from tech lead to CTO. You can use it as a handbook and look for the answers to particular questions and use step-by-step instructions. So, the book is very practical. It also has a lot of “Ask CTO” snippets with answers to controversial questions like “I still want to write code” or “hiring interns.” Every chapter ends with “assessing your own experience” exercises. If you provide fair answers, it should definitely help you understand your areas for improvement.
Managing Humans
If you worked as an engineering manager for several years, you would like to read the “Managing Humans” book. These “biting and humorous” stories are so good. The author worked at famous places like Borland, Netscape, Apple, Palantir, Pinterest, and Slack and faced many different situations. But these are not only “funny stories.” This is knowledge sharing by a very experienced manager. If you have worked as an engineer manager for a while, there is a probability that some of these stories will be very familiar to you. Do some of your engineers hate you? The story “Wallace Hates Me” could help you find the cue and what to do next. Are you struggling to find the time “to think”? There will be insights on how to distinguish the real thinking process from just reacting. Running the meetings is always a challenge. There will be a classification of “meeting creatures” like “Laptop Larry,” “Mr. Irrelevant,” “Chatty Patty,” and many others. There is a high chance you have met them already in your meetings. The book starts with a story titled “Don’t be a Prick” and holds the attention till the last story. So, in general, this book is an interesting reflection on how things work in engineering management.
Leading Effective Engineering Teams
“Leading Effective Engineering Teams” is one more book from Googler. This time, the word “effective” in the title plays a central role in the book. If you have read about “Project Oxygen” and “Project Aristotle” before, you will find a lot of repetition here. If you haven’t read about them, the book's author provided a better and more detailed explanation of that projects’ key findings than other publicly available articles. Plus, he provides wisdom from his decade-long Google experience on building truly effective teams. The book is full of “bullet-style” instructions and suggestions that could be helpful. However, I am personally not a big fan of that writing style as it quickly becomes hard to read and follow these neverending lists. Moreover, I got the impression that many things in the book, like “ask good questions” and “use the right tools,” look so idealistic. The equations like “hire super talented people, build a highly effective team, and create a valuable product” are easier to proclaim than to solve in real life. But it’s still worth reading. At least if you want to know what an ideal engineering manager’s life should look like.
Radical Candor
I tried starting to read this book three times and finished it only on the third attempt. Eventually, I realized that if I pushed through the first 30-40 pages, I could get used to the writing style and keep reading. So, if you are struggling like me, try to use this piece of advice.
It’s very hard to build an effective team of talented engineers. But it’s even harder to retain them. The author of the book introduces the “Radical Candor” philosophy and describes its practical application in Apple and Google. How to be a great boss without losing your humanity? This is a tough question, and you can find not only a theoretical background but practical advice on how to answer it. I wouldn’t say this is a book for recently promoted managers, but for people who have worked as managers for a while and would like to level up their management skills.
No Rules Rules
Although the word “radical” was in the title of the previous book, “No Rules Rules” is the most radical book I have read about engineering management. The book describes how processes are organized at Netflix. Most probably, you will be unable to apply all these practices in your company. Maybe even none of them. But you will definitely be impressed by how some ordinary work can be organized in very different ways. For example, if you want to spend $60 on some cloud service and you have to prepare a written justification, ask three different people for approval, and wait for two weeks, it’s not a surprise why your work goes very slowly, and there is no room for innovations. On the other hand, giving people the freedom to spend the company’s money as they wish could sound uncomfortable, at least.
One of the often cited parts of this book is a “Keeper Test.” If some of your engineers wanted to leave, would you fight for them? If the answer is no… Well, just read the book to get the answer. Even if you are not ready for radical steps, doing the “Keeper Test” is an excellent exercise to be prepared for tough times.
No Rules Rules are about rules. But absolutely different rules. After reading this book, you may realize these rules are so insane to be applied in the real world. However, Netflix is a successful company and an absolutely real one.
This book should be interesting, especially for top managers and company owners who struggle with a lack of innovations and a slow pace of work.
Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Engineering Management for the Rest of Us” is an interesting book, focusing mainly on the fact that most engineering managers had no prior education in management and struggled with crises and many unfamiliar problems after becoming managers.
I had the strange impression that the chapters were a compilation of presentations. I know she is a presenter, but I have never seen her presentations. The book is quite short, with many topics covered very briefly. Despite that fact, the author tries to provide a lot of useful examples. If you are looking for a short introduction to the topic of engineering management, this is the right book for you.
An Elegant Puzzle
First of all, “An Elegant Puzzle” book should be interesting for a manager of managers. The author worked at several famous companies, like Uber and Stripe, and shared his experience in this book. If you struggle with questions about the size of the engineering team or how to select project leads, you will find practical suggestions with detailed explanations. I found the chapters are quite independent of each other, and there is no strong storyline. Most probably because, initially, these articles were blog posts. However, there is a benefit to such an approach as well. You can use this book as a handbook and read only about the topic you are interested in to get practical advice and step-by-step instructions. Software engineering, in general, and engineering management, in particular, is often puzzling. Books like this help a lot in becoming good at solving such puzzles.
The Missing README
At first glance, this book does not look like it is for managers but for new software engineers. Why do I suggest it? The reason is simple: sooner or later, every manager faces onboarding a new member to the project. Every project has its specifics. But there are a lot of common things as well. Instead of reinventing the wheel by writing your own instructions for newcomers, you can utilize the wisdom from this book. With great clarity, the authors describe almost every aspect software engineers will meet during their work and provide ready-to-use instructions. During my work, I found a lot of practical examples from this book that helped me save time during discussions with engineers.
Final Thoughts
Do not fool yourself: reading about something is not the same as doing that. But knowledge can be very powerful. If you are facing a challenging situation and are already armed with knowledge, you’re increasing your odds of finding the right solution and making a more informed decision.
I’ve been working as an engineering manager for a long time, and I wish I read all these books before I started. It would have saved me a lot of time and nerves. Learning only from your own mistakes is very expensive and sensitive in management. You can fix a software bug you made earlier, but it’s much more complicated to reverse the decision you made to hire or fire someone.
I would be very glad if you found some of these books interesting and read them. If you would like to share your favorite book about software engineering management, feel free to do so in the comments.
Top comments (1)
Thanks for that post. James Stanier was in my wishlist for a long time, it looks like it is the time to read it finally.