Strategy
Playing to Win: How strategy really works is the best book on strategy I have ever read. Lafley is a former CEO of Proctor and Gamble and Martin is an academic at the University of Toronto. They worked together when Lafley was CEO.
This book provides real hands on ideas and methods to build a strategy for a company, organization or even a club. The first concept that they identify is that strategy is making limiting choices. That is decide what not to do and where not to compete. Only after making these choices are you ready to implement other strategic activities. They follow all of this up with concrete actions to take as well as examples from their time at P&G
Theory of Constraints (TOC)
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement is the business novel book by Eli Goldratt in 1985 that introduced the Theory of Constraints.
It is the first and the best. This is the book that transformed management thinking, creating a framework for companies to remove production delays and increase profits. Every manager should read it at least once.
Critical Chain is Eli Goldratt’s application of TOC to Project Management. This book introduces Critical Chain, Project Buffers, Fever Charts and a new way to understand how to increase the flow of projects.
Software Development
Rolling Rocks Downhill: Accelerate Agile using Goldratt’s TOC is a combination of Agile and Theory of Constraints by Clarke Ching, an Agile software expert from Great Britain.
Written as a business novel, in an engaging fashion, it is filled with practical ideas to help software development teams make the transition to more agile software development methods as well as find solutions to the seemingly intractable choices that need to be made during a development process. It may not show you how to save money, but it will help you focus on ways to make more money.