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It is widely documented that the absence of a structured approach to spreadsheet engineering is a key factor in the high level of spreadsheet errors. In this paper we propose and investigate the application of Test-Driven Development to the…
The Cell Error Rate in simple spreadsheets averages about 2% to 5%. This CER has been measured in domain free environments. This paper compares the CERs occurring in domain free and applied domain tasks. The applied domain task requires the…
Informal Knowledge Sharing (KS) is vital for end-user programmers to gain expertise. To better understand how personal (self-efficacy), social (reputational gains, trust between colleagues), and software-related (codification effort)…
A number of automated techniques and tools were proposed in the research literature over the years which aim to support the spreadsheet developer in the process of testing and debugging a faulty spreadsheet. One underlying assumption of…
This paper presents the results of an empirical evaluation of the quality of a structured methodology for the development of spreadsheet models, proposed in numerous previous papers by Rajalingham K, Knight B and Chadwick D et al. This…
This paper presents the findings of a case study of spreadsheet use in a higher education institution in the UK. The paper considers the use of spreadsheets in two units of the organisation, academic registry and finance. Spreadsheet use is…
In this paper, we report some on-going focused research, but are further keen to set it in the context of a proposed bigger picture, as follows. There is a certain depressing pattern about the attitude of industry to spreadsheet error…
In traditional usability studies, researchers talk to users of tools to understand their needs and challenges. Insights gained via such interviews offer context, detail, and background. Due to costs in time and money, we are beginning to…
Spreadsheets are ubiquitous, heavily relied on throughout vast swathes of finance, commerce, industry, academia and Government. They are also acknowledged to be extraordinarily and unacceptably prone to error. If these two points are…
Spreadsheets are one of the most widely used tools for end users. As a result, spreadsheets such as Excel are now included in many curricula. However, digital solutions for assessing spreadsheet assignments are still scarce in the teaching…
This paper offers a brief review of cognitive verbs typically used in the literature to describe standard spreadsheet practices. The verbs identified are then categorised in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy of Hierarchical Levels, and then rated…
Spreadsheets (sometimes also called Excel programs) are powerful tools which play a business-critical role in many organizations. However, due to faulty spreadsheets many bad decisions have been taken in recent years. Since then, a number…
The first fully-documented study into the quantitative impact of errors in operational spreadsheets identified an interesting anomaly. One of the five participating organisations involved in the study contributed a set of five spreadsheets…
Finding and fixing errors is a time-consuming task not only for novice programmers but also for expert programmers. Prior work has identified frequent error patterns among various levels of programmers. However, the differences in the…
This paper describes an exploratory empirical study of the effect of named ranges on spreadsheet debugging performance. Named ranges are advocated in both academia and industry, yet no experimental evidence has been cited to back up these…
Accuracy in spreadsheet modelling systems can be reduced due to difficulties with the inputs, the model itself, or the spreadsheet implementation of the model. When the "true" outputs from the system are unknowable, accuracy is evaluated…
The present paper aims to explore higher education students' spreadsheet competencies and reliability through self-assessment and real-world problem-solving practices. Digital natives alleged skills and competences allowed us to hypothesize…
Although experts diverge on how best to improve spreadsheet quality, it is generally agreed that more time needs to be spent testing spreadsheets. Ideally, experienced and trained spreadsheet engineers would carry this out, but quite often…
Existing approaches for detecting anomalies in spreadsheets can help to discover faults, but they are often applied too late in the spreadsheet lifecycle. By contrast, our approach detects anomalies immediately whenever users change their…
The use of spreadsheets is widespread. Be it in business, finance, engineering or other areas, spreadsheets are created for their flexibility and ease to quickly model a problem. Very often they evolve from simple prototypes to…