Trigger's Broom

For those few of you out there who do not understand the title I will explain. The famous TV series 'Only Fools and Horses' has a road sweeper called Trigger. In one episode Trigger is explaining to the others in the cafe how he has won an efficiency award for the fact that his broom has lasted 20 years. But he then points out that it has had 14 new handles and 17 new heads. When asked "How can it be the same bloody broom then?" Trigger pulls out a photo of him with his broom 20 years back and says 'what more proof do you need!'.

Why is this in any way interesting? I am working on a project at the moment where the value of an IT system in terms of its asset value and write-off is being determined. But the system was originally built for a different purpose than it is used for today. The system has been refreshed and is now sitting on entirely new hardware and OS and COTS than it was originally and has had major code enhancements and rewrites since it was put into service. Over the course of its life (until 2018) it will almost certainly be rewritten entirely. But for accounting purposes the life of this 'asset' will be calculated across its potential whole life.

You can see the parallel quite clearly. The system will have last 20 years and only have had 17 new heads and 14 new handles.

The really funny thing is that Trigger is considered a virtual retard in the series. What does that make our accountants then?