Deepwater Horizon Explosion

So now the news reports are all about how Halliburton didn't use the right kind of cement for the Macondo well cap before it blew out and caused the fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, and didn't properly test they stuff they did use to see if it would really work. But didn't we discuss back in April or May how BP put pressure on the well contractors to skimp on safety in order to save time and money? While it's great fun to dogpile on Halliburton because of the company's image of corruption and crimes, there's still plenty to consider when looking at whether or not anyone at BP was paying attention to the conditions and would have taken any action that could have increased costs or delays.

Like most of the software project failures I'm familiar with, there's more finger pointing than root-cause analysis going on right now. But that's just noise and the self-interest of the companies involved. The real root cause of the failure must go back to the regulatory and enforcement oversight environment that allows cheap, shoddy work, and unsafe operations to continue.