Chapter 3 Methodology
3.3 About the Sites
In this section, I o�er the reader additional details on the sites pro�led within this study and some additional information regarding the choices that were made to focus on particular kinds of organisations for study.
3.3.1 About Eta
Etais the pseudonym for a global provider of agile software development and tools. The company maintains o�ces in the US and Europe. They hold an esteemed position based on a number of successful engagements with high-pro�le technology companies. All of these feature as a central practice, pair programming, said to result in rapid, high-quality, sustainable, iterative development capabilities.
My contact withEtacommenced in May 2012 and, among other locations,8I began observations at its HQ o�ce in the US from March–June 2013. A second round of observa- tion was conducted at this o�ce from October–December 2013. Thus, the total duration for study with this site extended over a 18-month year period.
3.3.1.1 About ‘Sebastian’ (Informant 1019)
Sebastian, a pseudonym for informant 1019, is the COO ofEta. He is calm, articulate, and inventive. Promoted from within over a sustained period, and therefore an embodi- ment of theEtaculture (Kunda2006, p. 232), Sebastian worked atEta�rst as a software developer and later as a Principal with responsibility for leading client engagements. In 2008, he was promoted to vice-president and oversaw the company’s expansion through several new o�ces. This was the role Sebastian held when I�rst met him. He was sub- sequently promoted to COO in September 2012. He became involved withEtain 2000 as a software developer and practitioner of its evolving methods, which, as described above, centre around the core practice of pair programming. Professionally evolving from the position of consumer of such methods to producer, he is now seen to have had a found- ational role in de�ning the company’s development process and methodologies. With an
8Observations were carried out at three di�erent physical locations withinEta; two in the US and one in
educational background in mathematics, he began programming as a pragmatic step to earn a living. In describing this transition, he told me that ‘I think I just showed such an interest and ability that I was just in, in terms of being an actual engineer’ (Interview 1019, 25 Jun 2012). He met the founder ofEta, Alex in 2000 when he was working at another company whomEtawas consulting to, describing what he calls a ‘seminal’ moment:
I was working under Alex from 2000 on, because he had free rein to implement his practices at this company, and that company actually was a bit of a seminal moment. It was just after Kent Beck’s�rst Extreme Programming book (2000) came out—literally a few months later, I believe, and Kent Beck was actually on the project team, and Alex and his kind of band of comrades was [sic] there, all very familiar with this style, and he managed to get, or someone managed to get the CEO to buy in to try out what was then this ‘extreme programming’, with really no reason other than it sounded good and there was a book. That, I would say, was my—-I had only been coding professionally for a year and a half, but we were doing it with such discipline that I was just forced to try it, and I had the usual reactions, which were: “Pair programming, crazy; test-driven, crazy: emergent design, crazy; engineers not making up require- ments, crazy”—all the usual reactions. But because we were just simply forced to do it, and I was, obviously, junior, we just did it, and that’s how I still preach is the best way to try it, where you just really suspend disbelief, or get forced to do it (Interview 1019, 25 Jun 2012).
Sebastian’s technical expertise is well-regarded in the�rm as are the results he has achieved, both of which, according to Grint, give rise to the moniker of leadership (2005a, p. 18). This, and the formal appointment of the titular position of COO (ibid.), mutually support the claim that Sebastian wields leadership withinEta.
3.3.1.2 About ‘Ruby’ (Informant 1036)
Ruby, a pseudonym of informant 1036, is the executive assistant (EA) to Sebastian. She is centred, soft-spoken, yet�rm. She assumed this role in September 2012 when Sebastian was made COO.
Prior to this, she was an EA to a CEO at another company. She explained to me that in that role, her previous CEO would call her up on the weekend saying he wants to go to Tokyo—“make it happen”. In her view, the previous company grew too fast to sustain itself and, in the process, did not add administrative sta�as they grew. Only the programmers were valued. In contrast, she viewed Sebastian as thoughtful and said that
she was treated with much more respect atEta. She found the job through a friend who was a programmer atEta. Later, Sebastian said something to the programmer about wanting to look for someone and her friend recommended her (�eld diary 01 May 2013). Ruby, like some of the other EA’s I followed, had a background in a customer-facing role in the hospitality industry, suggesting synergies between these kinds of roles.
While not a formal leader, there are aspects of Ruby’s work practice that lay claim to leadership. In keeping with Palen and Grudin’s research, the COO’s electronic calendar is used as a communication tool (2003, p. 163), there is an open acknowledgement by Sebastian that Ruby controls his calendar. For instance, when asked by a report if he has time available to meet in the future, Sebastian responded, gesturing to Ruby, ‘You’ll have to ask my boss.’ (�eld diary 25 Nov 2013). While perhaps joking, Sebastian is nonetheless reinforcing through humour (Meyer1997, p. 202) what I had previously observed; that Ruby is responsible for—and therefore in charge of—Sebastian’s calendar. Put another way, she is the leader of Sebastian’s calendar and, in this exchange, Sebastian makes clear he knows this.
In assessing Ruby, Sebastian mentioned to me that she ‘could be doing much more than being an assistant, but she does not want the responsibility’ (�eld diary 03 May 2013), suggesting that he sees her as a highly capable person who could easily have an executive role if that was her desire. In my observations, Sebastian treated Ruby as a peer rather than a subordinate to whom one issues directives.
3.3.1.3 About Walt (Informant 1030)
Walt, a pseudonym for informant 1030, is a senior programmer forEta. He works in a city whereEtahave no formal o�ces and he works from home, which is where I observed him in May 2012. While not a formal leader, there are aspects of Walt’s character, as it is perceived by the company and the role he plays with respect to managing client relationships, that suggest implicit leadership practices are involved with his work. This is exempli�ed, for example, by the fact that he is one ofEta’s only employees who does not regularly work in anEtao�ce but instead does all of his pair programming remotely through an array of computational objects.
Walt’s technical expertise is highly respected in the�rm as are the results he has achieved, both of which, are aspects of the�vefold typology presented in �gure2.4on page32. Indeed, Walt and others atEtaexplained to me that these qualities are the basis on which he is granted the autonomy to operate his own virtual o�ce. As a result ofEta’s emphasis on pair programming, Walt has developed a number of novel practices around remote pair programming.
3.3.1.4 About Ari (Informant 1018)
Ari, a pseudonym for informant 1018, is the director of the European o�ce forEta. I began interviews withEtabefore the European o�ce was opened, and thus, had the opportunity to speak with Ari a number of times before he relocated to Europe to open the o�ce in the autumn of 2012. My observations with Ari span from September 2012 through February 2014.
One of the fascinating aspects of shadowing Ari over this period is that I was able to observe how a seasoned member of the leadership team goes about establishing a new o�ce in a new location. Part of what I observed therefore includes a process whereby an intangible idea (a European o�ce) is brought into existence through a process whereby a set of practices are established such as regular weekly meetings, the development of relationships, relocation of current sta�, hiring of new sta�, and solicitation of potential clients, resulting in client contracts, tangible projects, and a physical o�ce.
3.3.2 About Epsilon
Epsilonis the pseudonym for a privately held clothing manufacturing company. Its reven- ues are said to be in the $250 million per annum range. The company has one headquarters based in the US. No shadowing was conducted atEpsilon; data collected at this site was limited to documentary evidence and interviews of its CEO and top management sta�that included its chief�nancial o�cer (CFO) as well as vice-presidents of sales, operations, mar- keting, and product development, carried out between March 2010-2012. These interviews are enumerated as part of appendixE. I also had an opportunity to conduct a number of site visits atEpsilonas part of an earlier consulting project that completed approximately nine months before the commencement of this research. These visits allowed for on-site observation and engagements with senior executives of the company, including the CEO, that further inform the data set. Under the separate terms of the agreement executed for that body of work, these data can be used within this study as long as anonymity is protected.