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A Structural Approach to Chaos

Most business people are all too familiar with the not-so-humble spreadsheet - which actually turns 25 years old this year. Perhaps we should be using other, more suitable tools for budgeting, financial predictions, and sales reporting, but it seems we normally end up with a Microsoft-powered spreadsheet that will probably do the work -- but that is usually difficult to get to get to work with other spreadsheets or applications in the company.

Now there is something that might ease the pain: the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group, or EuSpRIG. Bringing together business, software development, and auditing researchers and professionals, the group aims to understand the extent and nature of spreadsheet risks, methods of prevention and the detection of errors, and ways to limit damage.

An upcoming conference in Austria may help folks learn how to better work with spreadsheets, a tool that can help alleviate one headache -- but comes with challenges of it own.