A Project Manager's Bookshelf
Steve McConnell, Software Project Management
A good summary of the techniques needed to deliver a small software project.
Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
I was sceptical of this book, but found it very helpful.
Andrew Hunt,David Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmer
If there's a programmers bible, this is it.
Roger Fisher, Getting to Yes
A great book on negotiating so that everyone wins.
Paul McMahon, Virtual Project Management
The lessons of experience managing scattered work teams.
Anne Donnellon, Team Talk
How teams respond to the institutional environment.
PRINCE2
The standard for project management in the UK. I keep feeling like I don't need to do all of it, and I keep regretting having cut corners.
Brooks again
I agree that "The Mythical Man Month" is still very much worth reading.
This should be shocking. It is (as far as I know) the first publication on software project management. Its lessons have not been selected into the DNA of those who manage software projects.
We still have to explain that adding staff to a late project makes it later, still have to warn against the second system effect, and so on. That's a big problem - or, if you prefer, a big opportunity.
Another Book
Covey's "Seven Habits" is pretty good for big picture *why* you're doing things, but for keeping track of the nitty gritty details, see David Allen, Getting Things Done. I couldn't find time to even think about Covey until after I'd implemented GTD.
Also risk management
Useful comments.
One book that nearly made it to my favourites list was:
DeMarco and Lister, Waltzing with Bears
2 Very good books
1) Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom Demarco
2) Peopleware - Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister 264 pages
- People are the most important aspect of software development this book show you how to create a soild high productive team
The Pragmatic Programmer - is the bible :)
Software Project Management by Steve McConnell - it better to read Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering by Robert L. Glass
The rest of the books I have read http://fireblaze2.topcities.com/sd/books.html
Instructions for the Cook
I've just reread "Instructions for the Cook", by Dogen. I'm inclined to add it to the list of the books that have influenced, and will influence, my work and life.
I read it in the recent translation in "Nothing is Hidden", published by Weatherhill.
Here's one of the points I keep returning to: "Even when ... one makes a soup of the crudest greeens, one should not give rise to a mind that loathes it or takes it lightly; and even when one makes a soup of the finest cream, one should not give rise to a mind that feels glad or rejoices in it".
More Books
Hi Chris,
A good list, and you have a couple there I have not read. A couple of my favorites that did not make your list are Steve McConnell's Rapid Development, Frederick Brooks's The Mythical Man-Month, and Jim McCarthy's Dynamics of Software Development.
Have you read either of the recent books The Art of Project Management, by Scott Berkun, or Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management, by Rothman and Derby? These have both received a lot of high praise. I've also been reading another Pragmatic Bookshelf book called Ship It!, by Richardson and Gwaltney.
I enjoy geeking out on books like these, and I'm fascinated by the fact that so many different people have so many different things to say on basically the same topics.
Best,
Dan