Google's attitude toward perpetual betas extends to perpetual war rooms. Almost every feature that you'd recognize from the last three years was developed in a war room. The visual redesign was a war room (well, war cubicle). Real-time search was a war room. The search options panel was a war room. SearchWiki was a war room. The bar across the top was a war room. Pac Man wasn't a war room, but almost all the folks involved were in war rooms and avoiding the war at the time.
Basically, it's just putting all the developers involved on a project in a room together and giving them a clear goal (launching). Other firms might call this "Agile" or even just "development". Heck, still others would call this a "startup".
We have a... well, some random dolt with a VP or director or some similarly overinflated title, but no meaningful role who explained that you should use "agile" method when:
1) You don't have time for planning
2) You don't have time for design
3) You don't have time for documentation
4) Requirements are changing
Which to me meant, "You use Agile(tm) methods when your project has already failed."
Basically, it's just putting all the developers involved on a project in a room together and giving them a clear goal (launching). Other firms might call this "Agile" or even just "development". Heck, still others would call this a "startup".
"We've always been at war with Eurasia..."