Press release: a research paper on Agile culture to be based on Boldare
At Boldare we take every opportunity to improve. That is why we were thrilled when Louis Fouejieu - a Ph.D. student from Maryland took an interest in us. Louis wants to take a closer look at Boldare from a scientific perspective and analyze our organizational culture. Continue reading to find out more about his research and what made him decide to focus his work on Boldare.
Table of contents
Meet Louis - an agile coach and a Ph.D. student
Louis Fouejieu works as an agile coach based in Bowie, Maryland. He started off his career as a software engineer but then moved on to other roles: functional analyst, scrum master, and finally, an agile coach. His job is to help organizations achieve their mission and goals through better adoption of Agile principles.
In 2019, Louis started his doctorate studies in Organizational Development and Change at Cabrini University. As a part of his journey towards becoming a Ph.D., he is required to identify a gap in the scientific literature and fill it with his own research. And so, Louis decided to write a dissertation on “Agile value-driven culture: crossing the Agile adoption chasm from doing to being an Agile organization”. An ambitious title, but what is it going to be about, exactly?
What is his dissertation going to be about?
The paper will focus on the culture of an organization, namely, how can an organization build a culture to constantly renew itself, learn and adapt to its environment, and thrive? In other words, organizations that are exclusively focused on implementing Agile frameworks, practices, and tools only address the symptoms of their problems (also known as “doing Agile”) rather than addressing the root causes of the problems to be solved (also known as “being Agile”).
To illustrate, Louis told us that some organizations are using Agile methodology as a quick fix to their problems, without truly committing to its principles. But it’s just a temporary solution and the underlying issues will have to be addressed eventually. And that is what this research will focus on: building an Agile value-driven culture instead of using it as a quick fix.
Why did Louis choose Boldare?
Louis’ research is a qualitative study, which means that he needs a lot of in-depth interviews with the right people. Fortunately, Louis has a friend - a fellow agile coach, who had worked with Boldare before and knew exactly how our business operates. Louis’ friend recommended Boldare as an organization that understands and does Agile well. And so, in October 2021 she introduced Louis to our Co-CEO Piotr Majchrzak, who loved the idea of getting involved in some academic research.
The current state of the research
As with any doctoral dissertation, Louis first needed to submit a proposal - an academic piece of writing specifying what his research is going to be about and how he intends to collect data. Normally, a dissertation proposal has three chapters: introduction, literature review, and methodology.
At the time of writing this article, the dissertation proposal is both written and submitted, and is now being reviewed by a committee of professors from Cabrini University, led by a dissertation chair. On the 21st of February, Louis expects to receive feedback, which he will then review. Once the dissertation chair agrees to the data collection, Louis can start conducting interviews with the Boldare crew.
What’s the plan for the future
In order for the research to yield any kind of substantial results, Louis needs to conduct eight in-depth interviews with our employees. His plan is to divide interviewees into three groups:
- two with people from senior leadership circles,
- two with people from leadership roles,
- four with people from the operational level, such as developers.
Louis’s plan is to talk with them about holacracy and attempt to find an answer to a single question: What’s the current stage of the culture in Boldare? To do so, in his interviews he is planning to look closer at five components that will help him evaluate the maturity of the organization’s culture. These components are:
- Agile values
- LEAN principles
- Ubuntu values
- Organizational development values
- Corporate social responsibility principles
We can’t wait to see where Louis’ work will take him and we’re excited to be a part of it. Our employees are more than happy to share their experiences and contribute to the overall state of knowledge on Agile. It’s a learning experience for all of us, and who knows, maybe we’ll discover something new about ourselves?
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