clean room technique

clean room technique

A procedure for cloning an existing product. The functionality of the original product is carefully defined by one group of people, who may have to use reverse engineering to obtain all the details. The resulting functional specifications are then given to an entirely different group to code or build a similar product. This method was developed to ensure that the final product does not infringe patents or copyrights of the original because its design was determined without knowledge of the inner workings of the original. Also known as the "Chinese Wall" approach. See clone, reverse engineer and functional specification. See also clean room.