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Floating over troubled waters: knowledge differentiation and integration in offshore platform design

This paper is concerned with knowledge differentiation and integration in the context of a large, distributed project. We contrast a firm-centred with a community of practitioners approach to the nature and locus of engineering knowledge by examining a project concerned with the development of an offshore platform for ultra-deep sea oil exploration, Octabuoy. The development of Octabuoy took place within a relationship between two geographically separate units which until recently belonged to two separate firms. The project's organisation mirrored the architecture of the platform and relied on the definition of clear technical and organisational interfaces between the two units. As the project got under way, the initial assumptions concerning the architecture of Octabuoy and project organisation proved unworkable. Our explanation of the reasons why this happened sheds further light on how technological practice is embedded in a series of connections involving firms, communities of practitioners and other institutions and evolves both through competition and cooperation. Acknowledgements: The authors are indebted to the comments and suggestions made by Professor Elizabeth Shove throughout the duration of this project. The usual disclaimers apply.