Complex Project Management: A Case Study of Deepwater Horizon Incident

This paper discusses the complexity of project management through a case study of Deepwater Horizon incident. It highlights the importance of proper business planning and risk assessment in managing complex projects. The discussion covers the aspects of complex project management, the causes and consequences of the Deepwater Horizon incident, and the evaluation of the incident. The paper concludes that the Deepwater Horizon incident was a complex project management.

Running head: COMPLEX PROJECT
COMPLEX PROJECT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Managing of the project is an important aspect for delivering the project in a proper way.
However, the type and nature of the project plays significant role in managing the project. On the
basis of the diversity, the project can be complex and complicated. However, there is a certain
amount of difference between the complex project and complicated project (King et al.,2015).
There are significant amount of uncertainty related to the complex project, where as in
complicated project the modules of the project are interconnected with each other and the
changes in one module will effect another module. In this study the discussion is related about
the incident related to the Deep Water Horizon. There are different aspects of the project which
indicates the complexity of the project. The discussion in this paper will gather the relevant
information regarding mentioned project that will indicate the complexity of the project.
Discussion
Background:
Deepwater Horizon accident is also known as the BP oil spill. The explosion took place
at Deep water horizon rig at Gulf of Mexico, approximately, 5000 ft under the water. Deep water
Horizon was owned by Transocean and leased by oil company BP. The accident took place as
the natural gas busted through the concrete wall.
The aspects of the project that indicate the complexity of the project:
According to Terry Cooke-Davies' book Aspects of Complexity, the complexity of the
project indicates the uncertainty in the outcome of the project. The complexity of the project also
merges the concept of human understanding (Incardona et al.,2014) . In this case, the disaster in
Deep water Horizon case indicates that there was lack of communication in the system. The

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engineers at onshore was aware about the bad condition of the concrete at the rig. However, they
did not inform that information to the higher authority. The management was unaware about the
situation and did not take any necessary steps for the improvisation of the system.
The miscommunication between the staffs and the higher authority in Deepwater Horizon
case is the main cause of the incident (Rodriguez et al.,2015). Apart from that the incident was
unexpected for everyone which indicates the uncertainty in the outcome of the project. This
aspect of Deepwater Horizon project indicates that it is a complex project management.
Deepwater Horizon was related to the offshore oil drilling. This business quires more
responsibility and monitoring. Lack of monitoring can bring the possibility of the accident. In
this case, the lack of monitoring and control of the entire operation has caused the incident. Apart
from that BP is the 6th largest oil company. In this case Deepwater Horizon is a large project.
One of the most important feature of complex project management is that all the modules
present in the project are inter related to each other. The changes in one model can change the
operations of other models and sometimes the consequences and outcome can be diverted due to
this change. The operation of the Deepwater Horizon rig was running in smooth manner.
However, lack of monitoring and the communication gap between the workers and the
management of the organization had led to the happening of the accident.
Another aspect of management of the complex project involves the proper business
planning of the project. Without any proper business plan the complex project will be failed in
certain cases. Apart from that the evaluation of the risk management is needed to be done on the
basis of the possible issues and the problem (Wade et al.,2016). The proper assessment of the
risk will help in the analysis of the risk. Certain mitigation plan can be derived from the analysis

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of the risk. Without proper risk management plan there is a possibility that the incidents like
Deepwater Horizon may happen.
After the investigation and evaluation of the causes of the accident of the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill several factors have been highlighted which are related to the planning of the business
and assessment of risks. Some of these factors are:
 The equipment and the tools needed to carry on the entire operation was developed
within short period of time (Joye, 2015). Moreover, there was no specific planning
involved in the entire process. There was no proper human resource management plan.
This made the communication between the different hierarchy of the organization
difficult.
 There was no tradition risk assessment report for the project (Atlas et al.,2015). The
assessment of the risk was not done in a proper way and the existing plan was not
suitable for the dynamic nature of the project. This also led to the absence of the
mitigation plan for the management of the disaster in the development of the project.
 There was communication gap in the entire process.
Consequences Deepwater Horizon oil spill:
The oil is considered as the valuable asset in present day. In this situation the incident of
the Deepwater Horizon case caused the BP a huge loss as a large amount of oil was wasted in the
incident. The project management groups in other organization is becoming aware about the
handling of the complex project management after this incident (Hu et al.,2017). The importance
of the risk planning is done as it has been observed that the result of failing of the complex
project is always complex. During the investigation the BP submitted the paper about the

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happening of the incident (Mills & Koliba,2015). It has been found that many of the people were
associated with the functionality of the different modules of the project. The investigation
indicates that almost all the people in the work force and managerial level were responsible for
the incident.
Conclusion
The complex project management has different aspects which makes it different form the
other types of projects. The managing of the complex project needs the proper business planning
and the assessment of the risk management plan. However, there are certain difference between
complicated project and complex project. The outcome of the complex project is uncertain. In
case of Deepwater Horizon, the managing of the whole rig was a complex project as different
modules in the project were interrelated to each other. Apart from that the lack of knowledge
sharing and monitoring were primary reasons for the happening of the incident. Evaluation of
various aspects of this incident indicates that the Oil spill of Deepwater Horizon was a complex
project.

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References
Atlas, R. M., Stoeckel, D. M., Faith, S. A., Minard-Smith, A., Thorn, J. R., & Benotti, M. J.
(2015). Oil biodegradation and oil-degrading microbial populations in marsh sediments
impacted by oil from the deepwater horizon well blowout. Environmental science &
technology, 49(14), 8356-8366.
Hu, P., Dubinsky, E. A., Probst, A. J., Wang, J., Sieber, C. M., Tom, L. M., ... & Andersen, G. L.
(2017). Simulation of Deepwater Horizon oil plume reveals substrate specialization
within a complex community of hydrocarbon degraders. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 114(28), 7432-7437.
Incardona, J. P., Gardner, L. D., Linbo, T. L., Brown, T. L., Esbaugh, A. J., Mager, E. M., ... &
Tagal, M. (2014). Deepwater Horizon crude oil impacts the developing hearts of large
predatory pelagic fish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201320950.
Joye, S. B. (2015). Deepwater Horizon, 5 years on. Science, 349(6248), 592-593.
King, G. M., Kostka, J. E., Hazen, T. C., & Sobecky, P. A. (2015). Microbial responses to the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill: from coastal wetlands to the deep sea. Annual review of
marine science, 7, 377-401.
Mills, R. W., & Koliba, C. J. (2015). The challenge of accountability in complex regulatory
networks: The case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Regulation & Governance, 9(1),
77-91.

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Rodriguez-r, L. M., Overholt, W. A., Hagan, C., Huettel, M., Kostka, J. E., & Konstantinidis, K.
T. (2015). Microbial community successional patterns in beach sands impacted by the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The ISME journal.
Wade, T. L., Sericano, J. L., Sweet, S. T., Knap, A. H., & Guinasso Jr, N. L. (2016). Spatial and
temporal distribution of water column total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and
total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) from the Deepwater Horizon (Macondo)
incident. Marine pollution bulletin, 103(1-2), 286-293.