Recommended Reading

Kniberg, Henrik. Lean from the Trenches,Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2011
MUST READ! The best HOW-TO book out there.

Appelo, Jurgen. Management 3.0, Addison Wesley Professional, 2011
A great collection of ideas on how to manage agile teams.

Adzic, Gojko. Specification by Example, Manning Publications, 2011
In-depth case studies of how teams automate specifications and regression.

Ries, Eric The Lean Startup, Crown Business, 2011
This book changes the discussion from software development to business imperatives.

Anderson, David. Kanban, Blue Hole Press, 2010
If you want to know how to do Kanban, this is the book to get.

Heath, Chip and Dan. Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Crown Business, 2010
How to sell ideas and change things when you have no power.

Humble, Jez and David Farley. Continuous Delivery, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2010
How build, test, and deployment automation bridge the Development-Operations chasm.

Bogsnes, Bjarte. Implementing Beyond Budgeting, Wiley, 2009
Agile ideas from the executive suite for the executive suite.

Crispin, Lisa and Janet Gregory. Agile Testing, Addison Wesley, 2009
Broad and in-depth coverage of how to move testing to the front of the development process.

Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto, Picador, 2009
It's simple. It's cheap. It's proven to be incredibly effective. So why don't we use it?

Kniberg, Henrik and Mattias Skarin. Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both, InfoQ, 2009
If you want to know the differences between scrum and kanban, this is the place to find out.

Koenigsaecker, George. Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation, Productivity Press, 2009
If you really want to know how it's done, then read the book by someone who has lead several successful lean transformations.

Ladas, Corey. Scrumban: Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development, Modus Cooperandi Press, 2009
One of the earliest books explaining the use of Kanban in software development.

Pink, Daniel. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Riverhead Books, 2009
An excellent book! All you really need to know about motivation.

Poppendieck, Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Leading Lean Software Development, Addison Wesley, 2009
For Leaders of Software-Intensive System Development.

Reinertsen, Donald G. Principles of Product Development Flow, Celeritas Publishing, 2009
An excellent book on lean product development.

Rother, Mike. Toyota Kata, McGraw-Hill, 2009
How Toyota does Relentless Improvement.

Beck, Kent. Implementation Patterns, Addison-Wesley, 2008
Thinking tools for creating great code.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers, Little, Brown and Company, 2008
This is a fascinating book about how culture and chance combine with hard work to create amazing success.

Kennedy, Michael N., Kent Harmon, and Ed Minnock. Ready, Set, Dominate, Oakela Press, 2008
Implement Toyota's Set-based Learning for Developing Products and Nobody Can Catch You. RECOMMENDED!

Martin, Bob. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship, Prentice Hall, 2008
What simple, clean code is, why you need it, and how to do it. Every developer should read this book.

Parker, James. Do the Right Thing: How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal Customers and Large Profits, Pearson Education, 2008
A GREAT book on leadeship.

Shook, John. Managing to Learn, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2008
Using the A3 management process to solve problems, gain agreements, mentor, and lead. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Sobek, Durward and Art Smalley. Understanding A3 Thinking, Productivity Press, 2008
An excellent toolbox for those who are looking for those who are sharpening their focus on relentless improvement.

Spear, Steven. Chasing the Rabbit, McGraw Hill, 2008
How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Kniberg, Henrik. Scrum and XP from the Trenches, InfoQ, 2007
An immensely practical guide to getting started with agile.

Meszaros, Gerard. xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code, Addison-Wesley, 2007
Tests are software too. But they have their own set of patterns, and this book is the insiders guide.

Nygard, Michael. Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software, Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2007
If your code has to stand up to relentless stress in a production environment, this book is required reading.

Pfeffer, Jeffery. What Where They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management, Harvard Business School Press, 2007
Any book by Jeffery Pfeffer is always full of a lot of wisdom.

Ward, Allen. Lean Product and Process Development, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2007
A deep look at how Toyota develops products, with critical guidance on how to apply lean to a development environment. RECOMMENDED!

Flinchbaugh, Jamie and Andy Carlino. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, 2006
A really good basic introduction to lean thinking.

May, Matthew. The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation, Free Press, 2006
A look at the culture driving the innovations in both manufacturing and product design at Toyota.

Pfeffer, Jeffery and Robert Sutton. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense, Business School Press, 2006
A wonderful book about how some of the most unassailable management wisdom is clearly wrong - based on the evidence.

Poppendieck, Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Implementing Lean Software Development, Addison Wesley, 2006
The sequel to Lean Software Development.

Cohn, Mike. Agile Estimating and Planning, Addison-Wesley, 2005
So you want to be agile and want to know what happens to planning? Read this!

Feathers, Michael. Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Addison-Wesley, 2005
If you are working with Legacy Code, GET THIS BOOK!.

Mugridge, Rick and Ward Cunningham. FIT for Developing Software, Addison-Wesley, 2005
Anyone doing automated acceptance testing, including retrofitting legacy code with acceptance tests, should READ THIS.

Seddon, John. Freedom From Command and Control: Rethinking Management for Lean Service, Productivity Press, 2005
Systems thinking for any organization that provides a service.

Surowiecki, Jim. The Wisdom of Crowds, Anchor, 2005
How it is that all of us make better decisions than any of us.

Zeller, Andreas. Why Programs Fail: Systematic Debugging, Morgan Kaufmann, 2005
How to gain design knowledge by finding and fixing defects that escape into production.

Cohn, Mike. User Stories Applied, Addison-Wesley, 2004
The details about how to use stories to drive your development process.

Denne, Mark and Jane Cleland-Huang. Software by Numbers, Prentice Hall, 2004
This book shows how to benefit from staged deployment based on economic analysis. Provides solid financial justification for agile development.

Kerievsky, Joshua. Refactoring to Patterns, Addison-Wesley, 2004
The best how-to guide on refactoring.

Beck, Kent and Cynthia Andres Extreme Programming Explained, Second Edition Addison-Wesley, 2004
The second edition is a completely new book, and it's great.

Schwaber, Ken. Agile Project Management with SCRUM, Microsoft Press, 2004
A book filled with case studies and down-to-earth tips about how to do Scrum.

Evans, Eric. Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software, Addison Wesley, 2003
An extremely important book - proposes that domain understanding is at the heart of great software design, and shows how to do it..

Hope, Jeremy and Robin Fraser. Beyond Budgeting, Harvard Business School Press, 2003
Agile ideas from the executive suite for the executive suite. The book that started the movement.

Kennedy, Michael N. Product Development for the Lean Enterprise, Oakela Press, 2003
If you want to know how the company that invented Lean (Toyota) does product development, this is the book to read.

Astels, David. Test-Driven Development, Prentice Hall, 2003
Award-winning book. This is the book to get if you are implementing test-driven development.

Austin, Rob and Lee Devin. Artful Making, Prentice Hall, 2003
A play comes together on opening night, no matter what. With the same philosophy, software can come together on time, every time.

Poppendieck, Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Lean Software Development, Addison Wesley, 2003
If you have a lean initiative in your company and you do software development, you should read this book.

Scholtes, Peter, Brian Joiner, and Barbara Streibel. The Team Handbook, Joiner/Oriel, Third edition, 2003
A classic on applying Deming's ideas: the team perspective. Tools for making team improvement efforts highly effective.

Womack, James P., and Daniel T. Jones. Lean Thinking, Simon & Schuster, 1996; Second Edition, Free Press, 2003
For almost a decade, this was the best book on Lean. The revised edition remains a classic.

Cockburn, Alistair. Writing Effective Use Cases, Addison-Wesley, 2001
The classic book on writing use cases, and still the best one on the subject.

Collins, James C. Good to Great, Harper Business, 2001
The five basis for creating great organizations: a great book.

Schwaber, Ken and Mike Beedle. Agile Software Development with SCRUM, Prentice Hall, 2001
The book to read for an introduction to Scrum.

Weick, Karl and Kathleen Sutcliffe. Managing the Unexpected; Assuring High Performance in the Age of Complexity, Jossey-Bass, 2001
A fascinating book about what makes very dangerous places safe: aircraft carriers, chemical plants, emergency scenes.

Dyer, Jeffrey H. Collaborative Advantage: Winning Through Extended Enterprise Supplier Networks, Oxford University Press, 2000
The economic rationale behind collaborative relationships with suppliers. Good background for establishing a contracting philosophy.

Freedman, David H. Corps Business; The 30 Management Principles of the U. S. Marines, Harper Business, 2000
A great book on leadership, management, and bringing out the best in front line workers.

Beck, Kent. Extreme Programming Explained, Addison-Wesley, 2000
The book on XP that started it all.

Constantine, Larry and Lucy Lockwood. Software for Use, Addison-Wesley, 1999
The authoritative book on usage-centered design.

Scholtes, Peter. The Leader's Handbook, McGraw-Hill, 1998
A classic on applying Deming's ideas: the management perspective. RECOMMENDED!

Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator's Dilemma, Harvard Business School Press, 1997
A great book on how disruptive technologies displace market leaders almost every time.

Reinertsen, Donald G. Managing the Design Factory, The Free Press, New York, 1997
An excellent book on lean product development.

Austi15, Rob. Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations, Dorset House, 1996
You get what you measure, but you can't measure everything, so what should you do? One of the best books on performance measurement we've seen.

Clark, Kim B. and Takahiro Fujimoto. Product Development Performance, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1991
Shows how the key to product integrity is information flow, from the market to the technical team, and among all members of the technical team.

Smith, Preston G. and Donald G. Reinertsen. Developing Products in Half the Time, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1998, originally published in 1991
Still the classic on rapid product development.

Womack, James P., Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. The Machine That Changed the World; the Story of Lean Production, Rawson & Associates, 1990
The classic book with the sub-title that gave Lean its name.

Goldratt, Eliyahu and Jeff Cox. The Goal, 2nd Revised Edition, North River Press, 1992, originally published in 1984
If you haven't read this business novel on the Theory of Constraints applied to manufacturing, you've missed a classic.

Ohno, Taiichi. Toyota Production System, English, Productivity, Inc. 1988, published in Japanese in 1978
A MUST READ book by the Father of the Toyota Production System. Easy to read, engaging, and profound.

Brooks, Frederick. The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition, Addison Wesley, 1995, originally published in 1975
A classic that has stood the test of time. It shows how little things have changed in 30 years.

Sapolsky, Harvey M. The Polaris System Development, Harvard University Press, 1972
An out-of-print book about a stunningly successful large system development project. Although PERT was invented for this project, it had little to do with the program's success.The real reasons for Polaris's success reads like a textbook case of applying Lean principles to large projects.