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The Engineering Manager's Booklist Β  Tweet booklist

Introduction

Engineering Management is a pivotal role, but seldomly formally taught. Reading is an effective way of learning from others. You can take bits and pieces of what has worked for other managers and use that information to adjust your management style. This booklist is for people who are or aspire to manage/lead team(s) of software engineers. This includes, but isn't limited to, Team Leads, Tech Leads, Managers, Directors, VPs of Engineering and CTOs. Pull requests are welcome.

πŸ‘¨πŸΎβ€πŸ’» About Me

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Hello, thanks for reading! A little about me, I have been an engineering manager at Fortune 100 companies and startups. This list represents the books that I have found valuable in my career. If you want to see what I'm reading checkout my list on GoodRead's list. Use the above buttons if you want to hear about my ramblings on engineering leadership.

Getting Started

First book

If you are going to read one book off of this list, I highly recommend the following:

The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier πŸ“˜ 🎧

Best of the List

There are a ton of great books on this list, but if you want to start out reading the top books, I would recommend the following:

The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier πŸ“˜ 🎧
Managing Humans by Michael Lopp πŸ“˜ 🎧
Managing the Unmanageable by Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty πŸ“˜
The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo πŸ“˜ 🎧
An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management by Will Larson πŸ“˜ 🎧

Book selection

The books or subjects aren't in any particular order so feel free to dive into the topics that you want to learn more about.

Reading advice

Personally, I prefer audiobooks. They allow me to listen to books while I'm cooking in the kitchen, cleaning up my room, taking a walk around my neighborhood, commuting, etc. Usually, I listen to them at 1.5x to 2x the speed depending on how fast the person narrates the book.

Feedback

If you have any feedback feel free to fill out this super quick survey. I would love to hear from you!

πŸ“šBooks

Table of Contents


  1. Management
  2. Leadership
  3. People
  4. Culture
  5. Change Management
  6. Agile Methodologies
  7. Communication
  8. Public Speaking
  9. Onboarding
  10. Interviewing

Management

Building Great Software Engineering Teams by Joshua Tyler πŸ“˜
The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier πŸ“˜ 🎧
The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo πŸ“˜ 🎧
Death by Meeting by Patrick M. Lencioni πŸ“˜ 🎧
High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove πŸ“˜
Managing Humans by Michael Lopp πŸ“˜ 🎧
Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker πŸ“˜ 🎧
The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan πŸ“˜ 🎧
Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke πŸ“˜ 🎧
The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni πŸ“˜ 🎧
Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo πŸ“˜
Growing Software by Louis Testa πŸ“˜
Principles of Software Engineering Management by Tom Glib πŸ“˜
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox πŸ“˜ 🎧
Managing the Unmanageable by Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty πŸ“˜
Behind Closed Doors by Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby πŸ“˜
An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management by Will Larson πŸ“˜ 🎧
97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know by Camille Fournier πŸ“˜

Leadership

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker πŸ“˜ 🎧
Leading Snowflakes by Oren Ellenbogen πŸ“˜
The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, and Craig Walsh πŸ“˜ 🎧
Leadership is an Art from Max Depree πŸ“˜ 🎧
Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell πŸ“˜ 🎧
Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan EagleπŸ“˜ 🎧
Influencing without Authority by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford πŸ“˜ 🎧
Nine Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham, Ashley Goodall πŸ“˜ 🎧
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by L. David Marquet πŸ“˜ 🎧 The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick M. Lencioni πŸ“˜ 🎧

Coaching

Radical Candor by Kim Scott πŸ“˜ 🎧
The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier πŸ“˜ 🎧

People

Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister πŸ“˜
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie πŸ“˜ 🎧

Culture

It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson πŸ“˜ 🎧
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz πŸ“˜ 🎧
Good to Great by Jim Collins πŸ“˜ 🎧
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle πŸ“˜ 🎧
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson πŸ“˜ 🎧
Slack by Tom DeMarco πŸ“˜
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni πŸ“˜ 🎧
Brotopia by Emily Chang πŸ“˜ 🎧

Change Management

Change or Die by Alan Deutschman πŸ“˜ 🎧
Switch by Dan Heath, Chip Heath, Charles Kahlenberg πŸ“˜ 🎧
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management by John P. Kotter, W. Chan Kim, RenΓ©e A. Mauborgne πŸ“˜ 🎧

Agile Methodologies

Scrum by Jeff Sutherland and JJ Sutherland πŸ“˜ 🎧
Essential Scrum by Kenneth S. Rubin πŸ“˜
Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, and Ken Schwaber πŸ“˜

Communication

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD πŸ“˜ 🎧
Presence by Amy Cutty πŸ“˜ 🎧
Humble Inquiry by Edgar H. Schein πŸ“˜ 🎧

Public Speaking

Demystifying Public Speaking by Lara Hogan πŸ“˜
Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun πŸ“˜ 🎧

Onboarding

First 90 Days by Harvard Business Review Press πŸ“˜ 🎧

Interviewing

The Software Engineering Manager Interview Guide by Vidal Graupera πŸ“˜