spreadsheets @ enterprise hackers meetup
DESCRIPTION
A summary of my PhD research as presented on the Enterprise hackers meetupTRANSCRIPT
Analyzing & visualizing spreadsheets Felienne Hermans (@felienne)
Spreadsheets are the aether of enterprise software
Spreadsheets are like aether:
They are
omnipresent,
invisible and
used for communication
The European Spreadsheet Risk Interest Group (Eusprig.org) collects horror stories
So why use them if they are so
error-prone?
So why use them if they are so
error-prone?
Neckbeard hacker often ponders
So why use them if they are so
error-prone?
Neckbeard hacker often ponders
Y U making spreadsheet?
So why use them if they are so
error-prone?
Neckbeard hacker often ponders
Y U making spreadsheet? Y U no love C++?
Spreadsheets are like prostitution: people are going to want to do it!
Spreadsheets are like prostitution: people are going to want to do it!
So lets try to understand the
problem and solve it, rather than
prohibit it.
The Dutch view :-)
Spreadsheets are like prostitution: people are going to want to do it!
So lets try to understand the
problem and solve it, rather than
prohibit it.
The Dutch view :-)
So we studied spreadsheets in a
financial company and found the
following
Only 33% of spreadsheets has a manual
Spreadsheets can have a long life, 5 years on average
Average sheet is used by 12 different people
No documentation, errors, long life It looks like…
No documentation, errors, long life It looks like software!
Typical software maintenance problems also occur in spreadsheets
Because of their lifespan, spreadsheets are often transferred.
Typical software maintenance problems also occur in spreadsheets
Because of their lifespan, spreadsheets are often transferred.
Initially, you are happy when you
get a spreadsheet from a
colleague, because you don;t
have to built is.
Typical software maintenance problems also occur in spreadsheets
But we all know how this story ends
Typical software maintenance problems also occur in spreadsheets
But we all know how this story ends
In despair
Spreadsheet users lack tool support
We believe spreadsheet users, as
software engineers do, need
support for understanding
spreadsheets they receive.
We believe spreadsheet users, as
software engineers do, need
support for understanding
spreadsheets they receive.
Compared to an IDE, which has
metrics, visualization, tests and
refactoring support all built-in.
We believe spreadsheet users, as
software engineers do, need
support for understanding
spreadsheets they receive.
Compared to an IDE, which has
metrics, visualization, tests and
refactoring support all built-in.
The support in Excel and other
spreadsheet systems is quite weak.
We took Fowler’s smells and adapted them to be applicable on spreadsheets
We started to solve this
This formula suffers from a smell
This formula suffers from a smell which can be refactored
We built a tool to detect and refactor spreadsheet smells
Spreadsheet users understand and even embrace this
Probably because they don’t have to meet him anymore
But seriously! Empowering end-users is key in modern enterprise software