Recently I've been hired by a small startup. My managers are both new to software business and I was wondering if is there a good book to recommend them. The book must explain well how to manage various development methodologies (cascade, agile, scrum, etc..), version control, how to effectively track bugs and how to set up support and everything. They are not devs so I was wondering if is there something appropriate around.
Any ideas?
Rapid Development by Steve McConnell.
This is a good high-level introduction to most of the topics you mentioned.
If your managers cannot -- right now -- actually develop software, you're going to struggle. Software development is remarkably hard. Someone who has not done it may never be able to understand how hard it is.
Even an experienced manager -- with out-of-date technical skills -- can become a liability. The Java programmers hate hearing a manager complaining that "When we did this in COBOL it only took two weeks. What's your problem?"
If your managers don't actually get the technology first, then the management will be largely impossible. Sorting out what developers are struggling with. Understanding a status report. Determining the consequences of an "in-scope/out-of-score" decision is very, very hard without some technical background.
I'd suggest that they learn to code, test, debug and put into production -- by themselves -- before turning them loose on staff.
I'd suggest you find an architect to work with them and make sure they can actually do development before they try to manage development.
You can hope the get up to speed, but your startup may fail before they learn enough.
You can absolutely assure they get up to speed by asking them to build something that actually works. Not talk about building it. Or review someone else's case study on building it. But build.
I would recommend "Software Engineering" by I. Sommerville (selected chapters of course). http://books.google.com/books?id=fIJQAAAAMAAJ
@S. Lott: it might be hard, but not impossible.
If they're new to software, I'd recommend The Mythical Man-Month by Brooks, and Peopleware by de Marco and Lister. They don't cover what you're asking for, but understanding what's in those books is much more important for a software manager than the details of the software process. Besides, they're short and easy to read.
The Software Project Survival Guide by Steve McConnell. It's basically a trimmed down version of Rapid Development (bullet points instead of paragraphs), so he might get through it a little easier. That being said, Rapid Development is still a good suggestion.