I repeatedly encounter ongoing software projects that are far behind industry best practice and as a result are getting the inevitable problems in quality, delays, waste etc. When I talk to the project leadership and above it often transpires that they are unaware of the literature that has been created off the back of many decades of experience, experimentation and research into what works and what doesn't in software delivery.
I have read many things recently on high-performance software delivery and tech leadership, and out of everything I've read, these four books in my view hold so much condensed knowledge on what actually works that they would be transformational for any software delivery project where the technical (and non-technical) leadership read and implemented the ideas held within them.
These are, in an order that would be a good order to read them:
📕 The Unicorn Project
The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim
This is a book that tells the story of the transformation of a fictional organisation from outdated and ineffective practices of software delivery to a much more modern and effective approach.
The book is a didactic novel, using a compelling and engaging story of a cast of fictional characters living through the changes and playing their roles in the change as they learn the principles at work — but do not be deceived, this is a book based on the foundation of deep industry knowledge and the lessons held within it are defensible and well researched.
It is a modernised version of the Phoenix project. Where the Phoenix project tackled the Dev/Ops divide that has (mostly) been abandoned in software delivery, the Unicorn project tackles more modern dysfunctions (Dev/QA silos, lack of communication and coordination etc.).
📕 The DevOps Handbook
This is the full manual for high-performance software delivery. You can use it as a reference to design your processes and your software delivery organisation will as a result out-perform the average by a significant margin. It's a drier read than the unicorn project, but very complete, and provides a great reference for all areas for any software team.
Advanced teams will want to iterate beyond the standard outlined in this book, but most organisations could benefit from moving from inferior practices to the standards outlined herein.
📕 The Goal
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox
This isn't a book about software at all... but before you move on consider that a huge amount of the approaches that software development teams take for granted (agile, lean, kanban, WIP-limits, retrospectives, daily standups etc.) have their roots in previous decades of learning and research in the manufacturing industry.
This book is another didactic novel, this time following the transformation of a failing factory and its production lines into a profitable and efficient operation in the image of the Toyota Production System (TPS). The Pheonix Project and the Unicorn Project books were based on the style of The Goal and all three are great books thanks to the approach taken and the huge amount of effort that went into distilling the industry knowledge into this format.
There is a lot to learn from this book, as I think much of "lean software delivery" and "Agile" has cargo-culted the methods from Toyota without understanding the principles that drive the behaviours and systems, and as such don't achieve the results they could. (For example the average SCRUM retrospective completely misses the point of the way Toyota runs continuous improvement).
📕 The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker
A lot of the best practice in software (lean, kanban etc, continuous delivery etc) have their roots in the scientific understanding of flows of work developed at the world-leading car manufacturer Toyota.
This book goes far beyond the detailed improvement of a production line and the theories involved; covering the company culture that enables high performance lean operations, developing leadership and transforming organisations (the case study being the turnaround of the NUMMI plant under Toyota's care).
Further reading 📚
If the tech leaders I work with have read, absorbed and embody even one of the above books it makes it much more possible for me to lead teams into high-performance low-stress efficient software delivery.
If you've already read these books you might be interested in the related books on my "tech" goodreads list
The journey never ends, so if I've missed any books you think are key texts then do let me know. Let's keep learning and improving together.
Let's talk
I'd like to work with more people who think like this, or who are open to moving in the direction these books teach.
If any of this resonates or you are keen to embark on this self-development journey then do get in touch and we can trade ideas and inspiration.