--- title: "Recommended books" url: "https://www.5whys.com/recommended-books.md" canonical: "https://www.5whys.com/recommended-books" tags: [] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "Roy Osherove's reading list for software team leaders: Peopleware, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Behind Closed Doors and more." usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # Recommended books Read 27 books every software team leader should read. 1. [Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (Second Edition)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633439/?tag=iserializable-20) by Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister 2. [Influencer: The Power to Change Anything](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/007148499X/?tag=iserializable-20) by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler 3. [The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable (J-B Lencioni Series)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787960756/?tag=iserializable-20) by Patrick Lencioni 4. [Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976694026/?tag=iserializable-20) by Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby 5. [Hiring Geeks That Fit](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00AUYNM38/?tag=iserializable-20) by Johanna Rothman 6. [Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn))](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321712471/?tag=iserializable-20) by Jurgen Appelo 7. [How to Win Friends & Influence People](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671027034/?tag=iserializable-20) by Dale Carnegie 8. [Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633021/?tag=iserializable-20) by Gerald M. Weinberg 9. [Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633013/?tag=iserializable-20) by Gerald M. Weinberg 10. [Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633161/?tag=iserializable-20) by Donald C. Gause; Gerald M. Weinberg 11. [Agile Estimating and Planning](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0131479415/?tag=iserializable-20) by Mike Cohn 12. [Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft))](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735605351/?tag=iserializable-20) by Steve McConnell 13. [The One Minute Manager](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688014291/?tag=iserializable-20) by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer Johnson 14. [The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201835959/?tag=iserializable-20) by Frederick P. Brooks 15. [Perfect Software: And Other Illusions about Testing](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633692/?tag=iserializable-20) by Gerald M. Weinberg 16. [Understanding the Professional Programmer](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633099/?tag=iserializable-20) by Gerald M. Weinberg 17. [Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/159059844X/?tag=iserializable-20) by Michael Lopp 18. [Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787948039/?tag=iserializable-20) by Peter Block 19. [Agile Coaching](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1934356433/?tag=iserializable-20) by Rachel Davies, Liz Sedley 20. [Instant Manager, The: More Than 100 Quick Tips and Techniques for Great Results](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814472133/?tag=iserializable-20) by Cy Charney 21. [Code Leader: Using People, Tools, and Processes to Build Successful Software (Programmer to Programmer)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470259248/?tag=iserializable-20) by Patrick Cauldwell 22. [Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321503627/?tag=iserializable-20) by Steve Freeman, Nat Pryce 23. [Manage It!: Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978739248/?tag=iserializable-20) by Johanna Rothman 24. [Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321579364/?tag=iserializable-20) by Mike Cohn 25. [Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195161114/?tag=iserializable-20) by Robert C. Solomon, Fernando Flores 26. [Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006084969X/?tag=iserializable-20) by Henry Cloud 27. [Corrective Action for the Software Industry](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971323194/?tag=iserializable-20) by Denise E. Robitaille, Johanna Rothman Links go to Amazon. --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/