A Pattern language - SkunkWorkEngineering

Rarely are SkunkWorks projects supported or encouraged by a company. It is a very difficult thing to manage and control from an ''official company policies'' point of view. Some corporations have dabbled in supporting SkunkWorks (Hewlett-Packard kept an 'open lab and supplies' policy to encourage tinkering...), but it is still rare. 3M had something like this. Do they still?

By realizing that you have a need to develop something in the SkunkWorks it does not suggest that a corporation is bad or restrictive. Change is hard to promote, and it must sometimes evolve from a ''grass-roots'' movement.

An example: You are in a corporation of several hundred people. The corporation as a whole will not make a move to Object Oriented Technology. Maybe the group you are in are reluctant to be the first to make such a move (lack of training, inertia, contract or customer constraints, etc). This is where SkunkWorks comes into play.

-- ToddCoram

Everyone is encouraged to modify, annotate and expand upon the following list of possible SkunkWorks Patterns: 

	* '''DesignTheRightThing''' - Work toward the right solution, even if a worse one has been ''suggested''.
	* '''SneakInNewTechnologies''' - Introduce new techniques silently.
	* '''TwoDocsForThePriceOfOne''' - If your documentation standard is lousy, supplement it with a more robust style (perhaps in Pattern form?)
	* '''ProofInPudding''' - Make sure that you are successful, it is hard to argue against success.
	* '''RevolutionThruEvolution''' - Slowly change the way you develop software.
	* '''HitHardAndFast''' - Don't wait around for an audit. Take too long and someone will figure out that you are doing something ''different''.
	* '''AlwaysMeetDeadlines''' - See LieToYourManager.
	* '''LieToYourManager''' - As long as you deliver, don't mention the fact that you are trying new and different stuff... This can be dangerous though...
	* '''RunSilentRunDeep''' - SkunkWorks should NOT be high, medium or low profile, it should be sub-low profile.
	* '''NoSilverBullet''' (If you meet the Buddha in the middle of the road, kill him) - Don't get trapped in the idea that you have found the ''perfect'' technique that will revolutionize the company.
	* '''LordOfTheFlies''' - Don't soothe management, beat it to death.
	* '''GiveThemWhatTheyNeed''' - If the ProofInPudding, and management doesn't know what to do because IcouldDoThisInaWeek , then just GiveThemWhatTheyNeed.
	* '''DontAskPermission''' - Sometimes it's a lot easier to just do the right thing than to get the appropriate signatures on a proposal to do the right thing.

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PaulMcKenney sent me these additions:

	* '''MakeApostlesSuccessful''' - if the idea is ''really'' radical, you may need to prove that others can adopt it. Find some risk-tolerant colleagues and help them use your idea. Do whatever it takes to make sure that they don't fail.
	* '''AlwaysHaveOneOnTheBackBurner''' - Skunkworks projects are risky and prone to failure. The only way you will get a reasonable number of successes is to Try, Try, Again. This is particularly important if you are trying something truly new (as opposed to transferring proven technology from somewhere else).
	* '''CultivateSenseOfHumor''' -	You will need it. ;-)

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The Lockheed lawyers periodically remind people that Lockheed has a trademark on the phrase "Skunk Works". Such a reminder appears in a recent Doctor Dobbs Journal. -- DaveSmith

''Insane. What are they going to do? Release a product with that name someday?''

[Lockheed's tight claim to this trademark is particularly amusing when you 
consider that ''skunkworks'' translates as ''our company's management would screw this project up if they knew it existed''.]

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Lockheed is jealous of the name. They got SCO to rename their "Skunkware" tools CD with legal pressure.

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See: BasicOperatingRulesOfLockheedsSkunkworks

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CategoryPattern