Authors
Thomas A. Grossman
Abstract
Spreadsheet engineering adapts the lessons of software engineering to spreadsheets, providing eight principles as a framework for organizing spreadsheet programming recommendations.
Spreadsheets raise issues inadequately addressed by software engineering. Spreadsheets are a powerful modeling language, allowing strategic rapid model change, and enabling exploratory modeling. Spreadsheets users learn slowly with experience because they focus on the problem domain not programming.
The heterogeneity of spreadsheet users requires a taxonomy to guide recommendations. Deployment of best practices is difficult and merits research.
Sample
Decades of software engineering research and application has led to some important principles. These principles are independent of programming language, operating system, and computer hardware. Although they have not been verified on spreadsheets, we are optimistic these principles are valid for spreadsheet programs.
The eight principles of spreadsheet engineering are:
- Best practices can have large impact.
- Lifecycle planning is important.
- A priori requirements specification is beneficial.
- Predicting future use is important.
- Design matters.
- Best practices are situation-dependent.
- Programming is a social, not an individual activity.
- Deployment of best practices is difficult and consumes resources.
Publication
2002, EuSpRIG, July
