Importance of Strategic Planning in Managing Complex Projects

This article discusses the importance of strategic planning in managing complex projects, using the Deepwater Horizon case as an example. It explains the steps involved in strategic planning and highlights the need for proper implementation and evaluation. The article also suggests the use of project management application systems and knowledge management for effective decision-making.

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Complex Projects
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
A statergyic planning in project management can be defined as the combination of a
technique of the business strategy and the project management. This is one of the must do
thing in order to get the goals that are set by the organisation in the fixed interval of time.
This helps in the process of managing the complex projects. Loch and Payne describes that
this is one of the most important thing that is to be done in order to properly implement the
plan for the project, do the required scheduling of the project and getting the best results out
of the project.
The role of strategy
In case of the deep water horizon case, the deep water horizon which is a deep water a
dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean
organisation the need of the staergycal planning was the most important thing be done. IT did
its drilling operations in the deep oceans of the Atlantis in order to dig out oil from the
kaskida oil filed. But unfortunately due to poor planning in the initial stage of the
development a huge disaster occurred which had huge aftermaths (Bryson, 2018). While the
initial stage of the drilling the mishap happened and which caused huge destructions. The
main reason for the explosion was a geyser of seawater that erupted from the marine
riser onto the rig, shooting 240 feet into the air. Which soon followed by the eruption of
slushy combination of drilling mud, methane gas, and water (Sammarco et al., 2013). The gas
component of the slushy material quickly transitioned into a fully gaseous state and then
ignited into a series of explosions and then a firestorm. Thus making huge blasts in the port
and the drilling station. One of the main reason for this accident can be called as the
statergyic planning of controlling the rig. The rig was controlled by 3 organisation in merger.
The head of the project did not had huge experience and also were advised by subordinates

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(Cassidy, 2016). This created some of the most dangerous effects on the working procedure
of the deep water horizon.
While the construction of the rig also the organization faced some of the major
problems. The rig was constructed by the South Korean giant Hyundai and for the
organization of the R&B which later became the part of the Transocean organization. Later
the rig was given on lease to the organisation BP. Thus it can be said the management of the
rig was changed for a number of times and no organisation spend enough time to explore the
rig properly. The operation of the of the rig began in the year of the 2006 when the rig
discovered the Kasikada oil field. It can be said as the most important strategies were to be
made in this part of the operations (Johnston & Bate, 2013). It can be said from the explosion
that all the decision were not made properly which lead to the devastation of the drig. The
regulatory officers who looked the various safety checks of the operations of the rig also
there were found that also some of the major strategic planning were missing from the
system.
The process of the statergyic planning according to Loch describes that process
follows the steps of the defining the mission and the objectives of the project, the second
thing that is to be measured is to properly the environment issues and problems related to the
environmental factors. The third major step is to strategically formulate the planning process
of the organisation (Michel et al., 2014). The fourth process is the proper implementation of
the strategic plan. The final state of the strategic planning is the evaluation and control of the
project (Haines, 2016). The evaluation and the control of the project defines the targets
parameters that is to be measured, performing proper measurements and then comparing the
measured results with the pre-defined set of the targets. Thus it can be said in the case of the

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deep water horizon the need of the proper strategically planning is one of the must do thing in
order to properly implement the plans that were made by the organisation. The rig controlling
organization also must properly care of the nature and hence avoid conflicts with the
governmental agencies.
It can be said that if the organisation have had done better planning in for the purpose
of controlling the rig then the accident would have been avoided. Statergyic planning is the
core for any project development process as it not only defines the process of the working of
on the specific project but also defines the steps that must be taken in order to ensure that all
the measurements are done in a proper manner (Danlin, Honig & Bacarini, 2014). One of the
best application that can be used for the proper planning of a project is the project
management application system. The project management application system is one of the
most important tool that can be used for the purpose of completion of a project (Incardona et
al., 2014). IT helps the project manager to better analyse all the aspects of a project and hence
helps in providing better decisions to the team. Also the application systems are capable of
preventing possible outcomes of the project hence the project managers can better analyse the
consequences of a decision. Knowledge management also helps in in the same way for the
better understandment of the decisions that are taken. Thus it helps in can lead to effective
PM knowledge management and decision making.
Conclusion
Thus concluding the topic it can be said that statergyic project planning is one of the
must do thing that is to be implemented in any project. Strategic planning must be done in
every step of action where there is a need of an organisation to make decisions. According to
Loch this is one of the most important thing that is to be done is to ensure that the project
head can think of a project strategic at every situation.

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References
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strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.
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Sammarco, P. W., Kolian, S. R., Warby, R. A., Bouldin, J. L., Subra, W. A., & Porter, S. A.
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