Let me ask you, are you familiar with the this ?
IT-Management needs a Life Cycle Budget report. One of your colleagues get the assignment to deliver a comprehensive report. So the first step is to create a mega download from the company's ERP system.
Cool, nice, now we can create a good looking presentation for IT-management. Your colleague starts to play with pivot tables, vlookup, hlookup, filters, formula's etc. etc. OH Yeah, some format changes are applies as well, nice colors, good looking fonts. The report becomes more then just a list with numbers, it turns out in a real piece of art.
Ai, the management meeting has been postponed. What is new ? However, it turns out that the next meeting is planned in a period that your colleague is on holiday. If you could be so kind to give the presentation. After all the hardwork has been done already so basically it is a walk in the park. Your colleague sends you the file by email.
Fine, so far so good.
Then the moment of truth has arrived, it is showtime.
The presentation is a great success, getting approval for the Life Cycle budget is no problem. Everybody is satisfied. You will become Life Cycle Project manager. Live is great !!
6 Months later...........
You should appear ASAP with management, no delay IMMEDIATELY !!
"What the hell are you doing ?", thunders it from behind the desk. Your manager is sweeping a big pile of A4's. "You've exceeded the budget by almost 30% and we have not yet even finished !!!". He sniffs and takes a deep breath before he continue's. "We now have used almost 2,000,000 Dollars while the entire budget of has been defined at 2,000,000 Dollars max. What has happened that you did not tell me ?". You are not used to this form of verbal communication, so there is actually something really wrong. Wait, wait a minute. He said something about dollars ?. What dollars ? The budget has been set up in euro's. So why is he talking, correction more yelling about dollars ? Questions, questions and more questions. So you hurry back to your office to check the file you had received from your colleague.
You open the file, and then SHIT SHIT SHIT, there is the answer right in front of you. On your screen the dollar signs show up........
What happened ?
The standard company desktop setting are US. However your colleague preferred for one reason or another UK standards. When you opened the file on your desktop the euro sign was replaced by the dollar sign. So when the budget information was shown to management everyone assumed that it was calculated in US dollars. No one realised that the budget originally was setup in euro's therefore no one thought about the exchange rate dollars <--> euro's.
End result: a huge budget overrun !!!
You probably think this does not happen ??
It happens more often than you think it does.