Good practice guidelines

Check out our "Spreadsheet good practice guidelines" booklet on Amazon.

Good spreadsheets are essential for informing decision making. But most spreadsheets are not good. The objective of this booklet is to help you make better spreadsheets, so you can make better decisions.

The spreadsheet good practice guidelines consist of five one-page modules, each of which summarises a key aspect of making better spreadsheets:

• Design principles. Deliberately design every spreadsheet, applying the spreadsheet design principles and their supporting questions.
• Spreadsheet Development Life Cycle. Every spreadsheet goes through distinct phases during its life, from Planning to Archive. Manage the life cycle and allocate appropriate time to each phase.
• Top 10 good practices. Applying these good practices will help you make better spreadsheets.
• Top 10 most common errors. Avoid these errors to improve the quality of your spreadsheets.
• Test, test, test. All spreadsheets must be tested. Learn how to test a spreadsheet, applying our detailed testing procedure.

These guidelines are distilled from many years of practical experience in designing, building, and testing spreadsheets, supported by an extensive review of the relevant academic literature.

The booklet contains about 3,000 words on 10 pages. Buy now