Skunkworks comes good
The full SSDN 'team' comprising the core team, key colleagues from across LTS, from the Scottish Executive, and our colleagues from RM, all came together for two days this week in Stirling to undertake a bit of 'futurology' in relation to the national intranet in particular. Some great sessions held and some superb outcomes - all the output will be used in our planning over the next few months. For one session, Ian Will led us through a version of the 'Skunkworks' method, first introduced to me by Don Ledingham when he kicked off discussion of a 3-year ICT Strategy for East Lothian. It worked for us too and has given us some quirky but very interesting material to work on. So, thank you, Don!Coincidentally, an article in this week's economist mentions that the original IBM PC (25 years old this year!) was brought about when IBM set up a 'skunkworks team' of engineers in Boca Raton, Florida. The team was freed from the normal bureaucracy of an IBM development, and instead reported directly to the top management in the company. No business case was written, no budgets were reviewed, and the team were allowed to develop the concept using off-the-shelf components instead of IBM-only parts, and, critically, the team made the specifications open, "so that software developers could flourish." The rest, as they say, is history. Sales in the first 4 years were four times expectations! |
© John Connell
The views expressed in this weblog are entirely my own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other individuals or organizations. All sources will be fully acknowledged.
Comments on "Skunkworks comes good"
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David Gilmour said ... (August 04, 2006 1:41 PM) :
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John Connell said ... (August 04, 2006 4:56 PM) :
post a commentJohn,
Outcomes from events like this week's Skunkworks might be helpful in enabling a shared understanding, beyond the SSDN team, of where it might head next. You'll see in Karen's blog "SSDN is a difficult initiative in some ways a it is developing as we are moving forward." Having an opportunity to see even a tentative longer term view could maybe help?
David,
Good to hear from you. Your point is timely since it is an issue we have been discussing seriously within the team over the past couple of months. In any case, SSDN has, from the beginning, tried hard to be as open a project as possible within the legal constraints of the procurement process and, now, within the process of planning and implementation with all our various sets of stakeholders (in particular the authorities themselves).
Our intention is therefore to try to open up discussion around potential future directions for SSDN, but we're still working through what might be the best way to achieve this. We need to find a route that would tread a middle ground between what it is realistic to discuss at a point where roll-out has not even begun, and the need to ensure that the broad concept of SSDN remains flexible and open to credible and serious suggestion. We also have to be a little careful not to raise expectations we simply cannot meet in the short or medium term - to be honest, though, the broad group across Scotland that has played such an important role in the development of SSDN over the past 4 or 5 years has been very good at engaging in a realistic discussion at all stages throughout the project, and I am wholly confident this will continue.
The national intranet itself will eventually be the obvious place to host any such ongoing discussions, but in the meantime we are likely to deploy one form of social software or another to do the business for us. Watch this space!