Ask HN: If you could recommend only three management books...

[rvb]

Suppose a group of friends 3 or 4 years out of college have decided to quit their jobs and start up a small development house. They are good programmers, but have no idea how to manage their team or their time.

If you could recommend just three books to these new and clueless managers, who think "scrum" is a Scandinavian swear word, what would they be?

We'd love to hear about any well regarded resource, but in particular would like to discover ones that have very concrete suggestions that can be implemented immediately: "Follow this process to structure your project..." "Have a ten minute status meeting with each team member every morning discussing each of the following points..." "Use the following task management software; here's how to get it set up and get the most out of it..."

Many thanks in advance.

Update:

Swannie notes, "When you say development house, do you mean software house - as in doing development work for other companies? Or developing their own product? A very important distinction to make..."

I replied, "Actually, both; developing for other companies is a way to pay the bills and gain exposure to new things, but the ultimate goal is to make our own stuff. So definitely, processes for communicating and dealing with clients are things we'd like to hear about."

[erik_p]

Although it's not quite what you're looking for (sounds like you want a manual / howto) I highly recommend "Drive" by Daniel Pink.

http://www.danpink.com/drive

[lsc]

I've read it, and found it about as valuable as the average business book, which is to say, not particularly.

The premise seemed to be that people work for things other than money. While this is correct, it's also obvious, and the book doesn't really add all that much to the discussion, I think.

[erik_p]

You might feel that way because you are already an enlightened thinker. In my experience, I've run into countless managers who I'd consider sending 'Drive' to because they fail to see or understand the obvious. In other words common sense isn't always common.

I also think it's more accessible and less dry than most business books. Shrug

[lsc]

I am hardly enlightened. I have something of an entrepreneurial personality, so obviously, money does drive me more than it drives most people, and that did take some getting used to and adjusting to. But if you live around people who work as employees and like it? It's pretty obvious that money isn't as important for them.

(to be clear, it should be obvious that money isn't everything to the entrepreneur, but generally, it means a lot more to us than it does to most people.)

Now, some of the suggestions in "drive" like letting employees decide their own hours are excellent ideas for small companies; Really, though, that sort of thing is very common in small companies. I've been doing it for many years now, and it's an excellent tool for employee retention. Sure, the guy working for me could get a pretty big raise for leaving, but he'd have to get up at about the same time every day.

This is an important insight if you are working at a large company. If you are working at a small company, this becomes a much more obvious solution; I've been doing it forever.

The other problem is that they seemed to oversell the idea. While flexibility is great, is has some pretty big downsides.

but much of the advice was targeted at very large companies, and I think if you followed a lot of it, it would be very easy to look dishonest and disingenuous to your less-emotional employees. Humans aren't in it for the money, but corporations? yeah, they are, and no matter how hard you try, most people aren't going to believe otherwise.

Maybe it's just that I value being honest and straightforward over being "Good" and possibly a little deceptive, but I found much of the book to be pretty slimy.

The thing was written in what I thought was the regular style for business books; breathless and almost but not quite ferris-esqe. "this is the next big thing!" easy to read, but very light on content. Really, this was my biggest problem with the thing; It could have been a /very good/ 4 page essay, but it was padded out to a 250 page book, which is just a waste of paper and my time.

Edit: re-reading my post, it seems unnecessarily negative. I mean, like I said, there were some good ideas. It's very likely that the general "this is totally great and different and world-changing!" tone is my biggest problem with the book, especially as I was already doing some of the things they suggested, and I'm an evil, money grubbing capitalist. Well, that and the verbosity. This is a valid complaint; the book really is a whole lot longer than it needed to be.

[rvb]

Sounds like a valuable perspective on the "team" part. Thanks very much.

[ryetoasthumor]

This is a fantastic article in Harvard Business Review:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QgB-NnO_xTEJ:f...

[Swannie]

This is a one written by a friend, on SitePoint:

The Principles Of Project Management http://www.sitepoint.com/books/project1/

When you say development house, do you mean software house - as in doing development work for other companies? Or developing their own product? A very important distinction to make...

[rvb]

Actually, both; developing for other companies is a way to pay the bills and gain exposure to new things, but the ultimate goal is to make our own stuff.

So definitely, processes for communicating and dealing with clients are things we'd like to hear about.

[Swannie]

Ahh. OK. Making your own stuff is easier in many ways.

However I'd suspect that with 3 - 4 years experience, with team and time management issues are far from the biggest problem. If they're going into a small development house, lacking in experience of external facing tasks, particularly "managing the customer" will be an even greater problem.

External issues such as: * running a sales cycle (is there work here? how do we get the work? what type of tender are they putting out, if any? what response do they want? who are we competing against? how early can we get paid?)

* negotiating statements/scope of work, prior to even discussing high level requirements, and placing a realist budget for the scope

* getting sign-off from the customer on deliverables

* raising invoices, chasing invoices, getting PAID before the customer's budget dissapears when they flip into the next financial year

* getting paid before handing over the next deliverable

* having the cajones to threaten to pull out when you're 80% done, $100k down, and waiting for a month on a cheque for $50k (so you can pay your developers)

* managing expectations of post-handover support and bug-fix

* change requests

* managing internal client politics, where your main contact is for/against you, and their manager is the complete opposite, so that you can get sign off

All of that is harder than managing a few programmers! :P Sadly I don't know any book that describes that side of the business. It's one that often gets left to the project manager, and they all too often drop the ball.

[rvb]

I think we've encountered all of these issues already :) Definitely would appreciate any resources for them that people can suggest.

[whatusername]

If you're planning on running a business: The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber.

If you don't have your own shit togethor productivity wise: Getting Things Done, David Allen.

This: http://managinghumans.com/ might be what you're after in terms of Engineering/Development management

[rvb]

Getting Things Done is a permanent resident of my bookshelf (and OmniFocus is one of all of my devices). That's exactly the sort of guide I was looking for, but for a company instead of for an individual. So I am very eager to check out your other recommendations; thank you very much.

[whatusername]

I haven't actually read Rands book. So can't really comment on it.. But you'll have likely seen some of his pieces (NADD, The Cave, etc) on HN before.

Gerber's book is brilliant and is a very highly recommended entrepreneurship book. BUT -- that might not be what you are doing at this stage... It is completely offline focused, and it doesn't really address the "make something people want then figure out a Bus. model" approach. To really boil it down: "Work on your business and not just in it" It's key focus is getting technicians (eg: a baker) to drop the tools (eg: stop baking) for a bit and look at the bigger picture of where there business (bakery) is going.

In short -- it's a worthwhile read, but it's not a GTD for organisations. It doesn't have the deeply practical stuff (list this, do that, etc) and probably isn't the right fit for a group of programmers...

[xstaticdev]

Let's see.. heres a few I'd recommend....

Good to Great by Jim Collins One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters

[rvb]

I loved Good to Great, especially the data-oriented nature of it. And, of course, Seven Habits is a classic. I look forward to checking out the others. Thank you

[lsc]

personally, I'd recommend the classics.

1. winning friends and influencing people by Dale Carnegie

probably the best "quick introduction to people skills" I've seen.

then, if you need to deal with vendor salespeople

2. winning through intimidation by Robert J. Ringer.

(not that I really advocate doing what he says, but it's an important window into the sales mind. You need some applied cynicism to defend yourself the first time you go to rent an office, a server, or anything else, really.)

but, I guess that's only two, and neither is as specific as you want. I've never read a specific business book that I found useful.

[pramit]

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[farout]

The books others have suggested are very good. However here are 3 that will challenge you to produce:

"QBQ! The Question Behind the Question": as the review says:aimed at purging the "blame, complaining, and procrastination" from the workplace

"The Ant and the Elephant": I read about several hundred nonfiction books mainly marketing or programming annually - this book is profound on motivating yourself. The idea that before you start your journey - imagine the milestones then imagine the ways you fail and NOW imagine what will do you when this happens is stunning. It is rehearsing for the worst so when the worst happens you you feel sad and then immediately move on.

Finally, I just loved this book "How to Get Rich" especially the section about hiring and keeping talent and negotiating the sale of your business.

[whatusername]

How to Get Rich is a great book. It's a fun read and is not at all scammy in the way it's title might imply.

And I just noticed that Felix Dennis has a new book out. 88 THE NARROW ROAD. To quote from that: "Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of a sh*t helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is the capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair and your rivals and acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt.

Self-confidence helps, but can be simulated or acquired along the way. Tenacity is an absolute requirement. Luck helps, but only if you do not waste time seeking it,"