OK, this might not be something that we’re all going to have to deal with in our everyday lives, but the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico highlights how corporations have to be agile in order to deal with unexpected events.
It’s a situation where you might suggest that BP should have had more preparation, and that they should have had a contingency plan in place, but even if that is the case, they’ve still had to deal with things that nobody has ever had to deal with before.
And it’s certainly the case that their PR could have been a little better in the aftermath of the spill; but the way they’ve assessed the situation, prioritised their goals, built things up incrementally, and ultimately have worked with a large team of stakeholders, can certainly be seen to have been carried out in an Agile manner. There’s obviously no quick fix for them, so I’m sure we’ll see them continuing to be Agile for the foreseeable future, as they simply don’t know what’s going to happen next.
Tags: Agile