  I present a study of the influence of disorder in thin magnetic films on the
switching behavior of small magnetic cells of well defined shape and size. The
disorder considered arises from randomly oriented crystalline grains of
different shape, size, and crystalline orientation which gives rise to locally
fluctuating intrinsic anisotropy directions and strengths. The study comprises
a theoretical investigation of a disordered Stoner Wohlfarth model, as well as
micromagnetic simulations. I show that the fluctuations in the total anisotropy
and therefore in the switching fields are controlled by a single dimensionless
parameter. The theoretical findings are well confirmed by micromagnetic
simulations of many different samples
