...hmm... typo errors huh...?

I think that is what is wrong with the heading of the third point that reads "3. Fannie Mae Discovers $1.3 Billion "Honest" Mistake..."

...then the article reads "Fannie Mae, which finances home mortgages, stated in a news release of third-quarter financials that it had discovered a $1.136 billion error in total shareholder equity."

...1,300,000,000 minus 1,136,000,000 equals a difference of 164,000,000...

...hmm...

In item #4 (University of Toledo), I noted with interest (and irony) the quote from the institution’s president Dr. Johnson. "I do think that the continuing fiscal pressures on universities have forced us to a level of staff support where there is little or no redundance in the process."

It would appear that the “fiscal pressures” have also forced cutbacks in the use of real English words (i.e., “redundance”). A “tsk tsk” to CIO for not placing a (sic) after the offending non-word.

Spreadsheets are ignored for testing even if they are designed and developed like other applications.

Strong validation formulas are required to avoid human errors.

Multiple Copies of spreadsheets is a huge cause of concern. Version Controling seems very important and needs to religiously followed just like all other software development projects.

I'm not sure that I would hold the authors of spreadsheet software to be entirely free of fault.

This is a product that is designed to produce massive spreadsheets (just look at the maximum dimensions of a single sheet, let alone multiple sheets) and yet has auditing tools fit for only the most rudimentary. Where are the tools that would detect a literal or inconsistent formula in all those thousands of formulae? Where are the cross-check and balancing tools?

On the whole, these are products that allow you to build a 747 but only provide an instrument panel for a Cessna.

There are many solutions which provide spreadsheet process controls to help overcome these problems. They range from "lock down" to cell-level collaboration solutions. Take a look at the Microsoft Partner solutions to find out more..

While reading the mistakes I couldn't help but think about the sage predictions that, in the not so distant future, IT functions will be unneccessary because "business"-people will be adopting and using technology by themselves ...

My first encounter with a spreadsheet error was about 20 years ago. A finacial analyst reported data errors in one of our financial systems. My IT staff spent days trying to figure out the problem, only to eventually discover it was a formula error in the financial analyst's worksheet.
I see the problem as a lack of education in testing. People using spreadsheets should be taught how to test the results of their work before the spreadsheet is used, just as programmers test their work. "Code reviews" and other QA processes now imbedded in system development should be implemented also.

These issues of "Spreadsheet Addiction" are hardly new - yet if users only have access to a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) or are unwilling to learn other tools for more safely/effectively processing such data then problems as described in this article will persist.

Patrick Burns has nicely summed up the symptoms of (and alternative solutions for)
Spreadsheet Addition

Prof. John Nash offers a similar critique of the problem and suggest what to do if you cannot "wrest the quick fix of spreadsheets from the grip of determined users ..."

Dealin with Spreadsheet Addiction

The problem is more deep-seated. Behind many spreadsheets and legacy IT systems there is a very popular bit of 'hidden' end user computing - the Microsoft Access database. I would not be surprised if a significant percentage of "spreadsheet errors" are in fact due to much less transparent and usually much more badly constructed Access databases.

I guess the good news is that there are now a number of companies providing software solutions because, let's face it, the reason we have so much end user computing is because we need it to do our jobs!