Further Reading
Brian White in Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase: A Practical Introduction (White 2000) has a good description of the various types of workspaces that ClearCase supports (ClearCase calls them "views"). He says that "one of the essential functions of an SCM tool is to establish and manage the developers' working environment, often referred to as a 'workspace' or a 'sandbox.'"
Private workspaces are a common practice in successful development organizations, so common that they are often not described as such. Managing change, consistent build practices, and other essential components of private workspaces are all part of the practices that classic books such as Code Complete (McConnell 1993) and Rapid Development (McConnell 1996), among others, describe.