DEV Community

Sergey Tsvetkov
Sergey Tsvetkov

Posted on

The Skunk Works Rules

Most likely you have heard about Lockheed or, later on, Lockheed Martin and everything they have created and built. Shortly speaking, you can see them as a prototype for "Stark Industries" from the "Iron Man" 🙂

And if you are into the history of the Cold War or the Silicon Valley history (which in many ways are the same stories especially early days) there is also a probability that you know a department called "Skunk Works". It is a team of engineers inside of Lockheed Martin who designed, built and tested most of those amazing fighter and reconnaissance airplanes they are known for.

The "Skunk Works" was founded by the guy known as Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson. Absolutely legendary man. And he had rules which they applied to organize and operate the "Skunk Works" from Day 1.

Here are a few of them I like the most:

  • Rule â„–1: The "Skunk Works" manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.

  • Rule â„–3: The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).

  • Rule â„–5: There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.

When I found and read those rules for the first time it was just so exciting thing to see! And since than every time I see this sarcastic "so-called normal systems" line it makes me smile. Yup, I agree, old man, and I know what are you talking about 🙂 Amazing, isn't it?

Here you can find all of the rules still published on Lockheed Martin web site: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/aero/photo/skunkworks/kellys-14-rules.pdf

Here you can read more about the "Skunk Works": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works

Here is a personal history of Kelly Johnson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer)

There is also a book on the topic: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

Image of Timescale

Timescale – the developer's data platform for modern apps, built on PostgreSQL

Timescale Cloud is PostgreSQL optimized for speed, scale, and performance. Over 3 million IoT, AI, crypto, and dev tool apps are powered by Timescale. Try it free today! No credit card required.

Try free

Top comments (0)

Billboard image

The Next Generation Developer Platform

Coherence is the first Platform-as-a-Service you can control. Unlike "black-box" platforms that are opinionated about the infra you can deploy, Coherence is powered by CNC, the open-source IaC framework, which offers limitless customization.

Learn more

đź‘‹ Kindness is contagious

Please leave a ❤️ or a friendly comment on this post if you found it helpful!

Okay