If necessity is the mother of invention, then a skunk works is her creative big sister. And if you follow the logic of that family tree, necessity is also the mother of skunk works.
James Dallas, former CIO at Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp., recalls becoming a skunk works devotee after seeing too many promising projects labeled failures before the development team had a chance to get all of the kinks out. “Within a large corporation, whenever you do something, the spotlight is on it,” he says. “When it’s not successful, people can be too quick to cancel it. With skunk works, you can get the lessons learned in a real roll-up-your-sleeves, hands-on manner that is away from the spotlight.”
Skunk works are small research and development groups formed to produce a technology or product. While the goal of a traditional skunk works is to develop a commercial product or technology, the aim of an IT skunk works is to solve an internal business problem.
Catch a whiff at:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/cworld-skunk.html