Analyzing and Visualizing Spreadsheets

Analyzing and Visualizing Spreadsheets

Hermans, F.F.J.

Van Deursen, A. (promotor)

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Software Engineering

2013-01-23

Spreadsheets are used extensively in industry: they are the number one tool for financial analysis and are also prevalent in other domains, such as logistics and planning. Their flexibility and immediate feedback make them easy to use for non-programmers. But as easy as spreadsheets are to build, so difficult can they be to analyze and adapt. This dissertation aims at developing methods to support spreadsheet users to understand, update and improve spreadsheets. We took our inspiration for such methods from software engineering, as this field is specialized in the analysis of data and calculations. In this dissertation, we have looked at four different aspects of spreadsheets: metadata, structure, formulas and data. We found that methods from software engineering can be applied to spreadsheets very well, and that these methods support end-users in working with spreadsheets.

spreadsheets
end-user programming
visualization

https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:3a3ea534-68df-44a5-8a2d-411826d0335a

9789088915680

Institutional Repository

doctoral thesis

(c) 2013 Hermans, F.F.J.