Authors
David A. Banks & Ann Monday
Abstract
The spreadsheet has been used by the business community for many years and yet still raises a number of significant concerns. As educators our concern is to try to develop the students skills in both the development of spreadsheets and in taking a critical view of their potential defects.
In this paper we consider both the problems of mechanical production and the problems of translation of problem to spreadsheet representation.
Sample
Unless we can help students recognise the broader interpretive components of the process as well as use good mechanical design principles the problems of poorly developed and applied spreadsheets will not be alleviated in the near future.
Above all we must avoid the mentality of the developer who left the comments above embedded in a large database application that ran successfully for one year after his efforts but then failed totally.
Publication
2002, EuSpRIG
Full article
Interpretation as a factor in understanding flawed spreadsheets
