Management

Behind Closed Doors follows interim manager Sam as he steadies a struggling team and rebuilds trust. Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby show how purposeful one-on-ones, visual management, and timely feedback change the team’s trajectory. The narrative makes core management habits accessible and easy to adapt to your own context.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team explores how trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results form a tightly coupled system. Patrick Lencioni tells a leadership fable about an executive team that slips into dysfunction, then demonstrates facilitation techniques to reverse the spiral. It is a quick read for leaders and team members who want to spot warning signs early and restore performance.

Frederick P. Brooks Jr. blends project folklore with data in a collection of essays that explain why complex software efforts slip. He challenges comforting myths about staffing, communication overhead, and conceptual integrity; adding people to a late project, he argues, only makes it later. The anniversary edition remains a staple reference for leaders who need common-sense heuristics to steer ambitious delivery work.

Team Topologies evolves DevOps topology work into a practical playbook for structuring teams and interactions. Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais describe four fundamental team types and three interaction modes designed to improve flow and reduce cognitive load. Case studies show how intentional boundaries and communication paths accelerate delivery in complex organisations.

Mike Cohn offers a pragmatic guide to adopting Scrum beyond the first pilot team, covering organisational change, scaling, and coaching. He outlines how to tailor roles, plan releases, and handle resistance while keeping agile values intact. The book serves as a reference for leaders shepherding sustained agile transformations.

The Practice of Management frames management as a discipline grounded in purpose, accountability, and attention to people. Peter F. Drucker explains how to set objectives, measure performance, foster innovation, and build organisations that learn. Despite its age, the book remains a reference for leaders who want timeless principles to balance strategy and execution.

Manage It! provides pragmatic project-management practices for teams delivering software under pressure. Johanna Rothman blends real-world case studies with lightweight planning tools so you can balance risk, delivery, and learning without adding bureaucracy. It is a handy reference when you need structure that still leaves room for experimentation.