The Tyranny of Spreadsheets
Fantastic blog post. I highly recommend reading it in full, and also checking out the work of the European Spreadsheet Risks Group, and Felienne Hermans specifically (referenced in the original post). I&#x27;ve been working on a spreadsheet startup [1] for the past 8 months or so and those folks have a large amount of absolutely upsetting-but-helpful research on spreadsheet usage&#x2F;errors.<p>After the past few years working with spreadsheet power users, here&#x27;s how I like to think about them:
1. Most spreadsheets are just used a lists&#x2F;trackers [2].
2. Some spreadsheets are very calculation heavy, and are better understood as complex software projects (usually modeling something; s&#x2F;o to those PE mfs) than as anything else.
3. Spreadsheets make the transition between (simple list&#x2F;tracker) and (complex software project very fluid. This flexibility usually means that the (complex software project) that is created is buggy as hell.<p>Spreadsheets give not-super-technical users an incredible visibility into their data. Spreadsheets give not-super-technical users a way to program data transformations in what I would argue is the most generally intuitive way that exists. Spreadsheets give not-super-technical users tools to build software without introducing them to proper software development methods. Ya know, like maybe a test. Or a code review. Or no global variables. Etc.<p>If you want to see how we&#x27;re attacking the spreadsheet problem, check us out. Feedback highly appreciated! [1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;trymito.io&#x2F;hn" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;trymito.io&#x2F;hn</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.joelonsoftware.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;01&#x2F;06&#x2F;how-trello-is-different&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.joelonsoftware.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;01&#x2F;06&#x2F;how-trello-is-diff...</a>