Spreadsheet Literature
INDEX
ARTICLE
SUMMARY
SS1
Taylor, M, Moynihan, E and Wood-Harper,
A. (1998). End-user computing and
information
systems
methodologies,
Information Systems Journal 8, (1998), p.
85-96
MA2
Leon, L, Dolphy, M and Kalbers, L. (2010).
Beyond
Regulatory
Compliance
for
Spreadsheet Controls: A Tutorial to Assist
Practitioners and a Call for Research,
Communications of the Association for
Information Systems, 27 (8) p 541-560
MA3
Panko, R and Halverson, R. (1996).
Spreadsheets on Trial: A Survey of
Research on Spreadsheet risks. 29th
Annual Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences - 1996
This paper examines the relationship between
information systems methodologies and the end-user
computing environment. In particular, the potential
benefits and disadvantages of the use of information
systems methodologies for end-user computing, and
strategies by which such usage can be accomplished.
Keywords: End-user computing, information systems
methodology.
This tutorial presents an analysis of the prior work on
error prevention and detection in spreadsheets as it
relates to SOX and IT governance frameworks more
generally. It attempts to reconcile requirements for SOX
with IT spreadsheet research. It offers a series of options
for controlling the spreadsheet development process.
Keywords: Spreadsheet errors, internal controls, IT
governance, regulatory compliance
This paper presents a framework for risks in
spreadsheeting and organises selected research findings
in terms of this framework. This draws on evidence from
experiments, field audits, and surveys of end users and
organisations that early concerns of the potential dangers
of end user spreadsheet development were well founded.
MA4
Chan, Y and Storey, V (1996). The use of
This
paper
explores
spreadsheet
use
within
RATING
4 Peer
journal
3
W/paper
2 Grey
lit
1 Other
4
FOCUS
A/c
IT
HR
Purch.
Gen.
THEORY
MODE
BPO
SS
Gen
Mixed
A
Funct.
BPO
SSC
spreadsheets
in
organisations:
Determinants
and
consequences.
Information & Management 31 (1996) p
119-134
MA5
Erwig, M, Abraham, R, Cooperstein, I and
Kollmansberger, S. (2005). Automatic
Generation and Maintenance of Correct
Spreadsheets. ICSE, May 2005.
MA6
Rothermel, G, Burnett, M, Li, L, Dupius, C
and Sheretov, A. (2001). A Methodology for
Testing Spreadsheets. Transaction on
Software Engineering and Methodology. 10
(1), January 2001 P 110-147
MA7
Brown, P and Gould, J. (1987). An
Experimental Study of People Creating
Spreadsheets. Transactions on Office
Information Systems, 5 (3) July 1987, P
258-272
MA8
Hendry, D and Green T (1994) Creating,
comprehending
and
explaining
spreadsheets: a cognitive interpretation of
what discretionary users think of the
spreadsheet model. Journal of Human and
Computer Studies, 40, P 1033-1065.
organisations, drawing on results from a survey carried
out to investigate the relationship among tasks,
spreadsheet proficiency, usage, and satisfaction.
Keywords: End-user computing; spreadsheets; Software
packages.
This paper proposes a system that prevents errors in
spreadsheets by restricting spreadsheet updates to only
those that are logically and technically correct. The
system is based on the concept of templates that
describe the principal structure of the initial spreadsheet
and all of its future versions.
Keywords: Spreadsheets, Template, Program generation,
Error prevention, Type system, End-user software
engineering.
The article attempts to provide some of the benefits of
formal testing methodology to the creators of
spreadsheets. This article presents a testing
methodology that adapts data flow adequacy criteria and
coverage monitoring to the task of testing spreadsheets.
Keywords: Software testing, spreadsheets.
This study saw nine experienced users of electronic
spreadsheets each creating three spreadsheets. It
showed that 44 percent of the spreadsheets contained
user generated errors, despite their initial confidence.
The study also showed that people did not spend a lot of
time planning before launching a spreadsheet creating
episode, and spend 21% of their time pausing before
doing so.
Keywords: Programming errors, spreadsheets.
This paper summarises transcripts of interviews from
users of spreadsheets when asked to explain how their
spreadsheets worked. The interviews reveal key
strengths and weaknesses of the spreadsheet model. It
shows how in previous literature has emphasised
strengths of spreadsheets and tended to overlook
weaknesses.
Powell, S, Baker, K, and Lawson, B (2008)
A critical review of the literature on
spreadsheet errors. Decision Support
Systems 46 (2008) P 128-138
Pemberton, J and Robson, A. (2000)
Spreadsheets in business. Industrial
Management and Data Systems 100 (2000)
P 379-388
Baskarada, S (2010) How Spreadsheet
Applications Affect Information Quality.
Journal of Computer Information Systems
(Spring 2011) P 77-84
This paper summarizes and critiques the research
literature on spreadsheet errors from the viewpoint of a
manager who wishes to improve operational spreadsheet
quality. It also offers suggestions for future research
directions that can improve the state of knowledge about
spreadsheet errors and mitigate spreadsheet risks.
This paper aims to assess the impact of spreadsheets on
today’s modern business by presenting research based
on a questionnaire survey of 227 respondents drawn
from a range of business disciplines, and at various
levels within their organisations.
This paper aims to bridge the gap in literature regarding
the lack of research into the impact of spreadsheets on
organisational information quality. It identifies key factors
– inherent to spreadsheet applications as well as related
to their use – which may have significant negative effects
on information quality in organisations.
Keywords: data quality, information quality, spreadsheet
application, ethnography.
Petti R, Cannon H. An Innovative
Spreadsheet Authoring Environment.
Journal Of Internet Banking & Commerce
[serial online]. August 2008;13(2):1-11.
This paper compares design criteria against the new
ModelSheet authoring environment, which is based on a new
symbiosis of visual layout and program structures. ModelSheet
retains the key strengths of spreadsheets - supporting
decentralized innovation by domain experts who may not be
programmers - while it improves model reliability, model
expressiveness, team collaboration, and modeler productivity.
Reason T. Building Better Budgets. Cfo
[serial online]. December 2000;16(14):91.
This article discusses issues companies have with Excel
spreadsheets, and how companies are turning to
budgeting and planning software packages to reduce
time and effort spent on budgeting.
This article presents results from a survey showing the
real value of leading practices in budgeting, planning and
forecasting. It shows a gap between practices of top flight
business and average enterprises.
This article discusses how suppliers are beginning to
offer more sophisticated tools that will make compliance
with Sarbanes-Oxley easier in the future, noting how
before business relied on simple software tools such as
spreadsheets to analyse compliance.
Leahy T. Can the Budgeting Competency
Gap Be Narrowed?. Business Finance
[serial online]. February 2006;12(2):39-43.
Goodwin B. Software can ease the pain
and cut the cost of compliance, says Butler.
Computer Weekly [serial online]. March 15,
2005;:16.
Galleta, D, Hartzel, K, Johnson, S, Joseph,
J and Rustagi, S. (1996) Spreadsheet
presentation and error detection: an
experimental study. 29th International
Conference on System Sciences (1996).
Rao M, Mandal P. Linking the Impact of IT
Investments to Productivity and Profitability.
International Journal Of Enterprise
Information Systems [serial online]. April
2011;7(2):34-49. Available from: EconLit,
Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 17, 2012.
This paper reports on a study to understand if error
detection was aided by presentation format. Subjects
found on average only 50% of errors across all
presentation formats. This paper suggests that
practitioners should be aware of the difficulties in finding
even simple errors, especially on-screen, and should
develop training programs to facilitate spreadsheet
auditor’s performance.
This paper describes a measurement model, known as
the PPP model (Profitability = Productivity + Price
Recovery) that can fill the gap and show a link between
IT investments, productivity and profitability.
Douglas Howcroft, (2006) "Spreadsheets
and the financial planning process: a case
study of resistance to change", Journal of
Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol.
2 Iss: 3, pp.248 – 280 (Still need access to
hard copy)
The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain the
barriers that prevented the case study organisation, a UK
manufacturing and R&D subsidiary of a European
transnational company, from improving its spreadsheetbased financial planning process.
Surendranath R. Jory, Jacob Peng,
Caroline O. Ford, (2010) "The wealth
effects of investing in information
technology: The case of Sarbanes-Oxley
section 404 compliance", Review of
Accounting and Finance, Vol. 9 Iss: 3,
pp.285 – 305 (Still need access to hard
copy)
Edwarsds, J, Finlay, P and Wilson, J.
(2000) The role of OR specialists in ‘do it
yourself’ spreadsheet development.
European Journal of Operational Research
127 (2000) P 14-27.
This paper aims to examine investor reaction to
companies' announcements of new information
technology (IT) or improved existing IT to satisfy
requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
of 2002.
This paper discusses how the implementation of ‘Do it
yourself spreadsheets’ have become widespread in
recent years, although that this has led to concerns that
many of the systems may not be fit for purpose. A set of
20 guidelines are presented to help the OR specialist
guide the DIYer to ‘scope’ any proposed spreadsheet.
Miller, R. (2005) Only a matter of time
before the spreadsheets hit the fan. The
Telegraph, 30 June 2005.
Business & Media: Media: THE
NETWORKER: Spreadsheets serve as
weapons of mass cost destruction
This article reports on how inaccurate financial
information is widespread and is putting businesses at
risk.
This article talks of how spreadsheets have made it so
easy to calculate ‘what-if’ scenarios that they have
created a culture where companies are constantly
second guessing themselves and over planning.
Tobias, E. (2000) My biggest mistake: I
should have looked, and listened to people.
The Independent, September 13 2000.
This article discusses the thoughts of an IT manager that
presented to his board plans to continue using older
mainframe style network as opposed to spreadsheets,
even though it seems many businesses were going that
way.
This paper discusses how the considering errors are
usually found in a few percent of all cells on
spreadsheets, for a large organisation the question is not
whether they exist, but how many there are. Also how in
programming, there are strict development disciplines
whereas spreadsheet creation tends to be more informal.
This article brings together experiences of a number of
senior practitioners who have spent much of their careers
working with large spreadsheets that have been and
continue to be used to support major financial
transactions and manage large institutions in the City of
London. It is suggested that the City is presently exposed
to significant reputational risk through the uncontrolled
use of critical spreadsheets in the financial markets and
elsewhere.
This paper describes the properties of the spreadsheet
interface and the ways in which spreadsheets support
users with little or no formal training in programming. It
analyses the spreadsheet formula language through
which users express mathematical relations and the
tabular grid which permits users to view, structure and
Panko, R. (1998) What We Know About
Spreadsheet Errors. Journal of End User
Computing, Special Issue on Scaling Up
End User Development. Volume 10, No 2,
Spring 1998 P 15-21.
Croll, G. (2005) The Importance and
Criticality of Spreadsheets in the City of
London. European Spreadsheet Risks
Interest Group.
Nardi, B and Miller, J. (1990) The
spreadsheet interface: A basis for end-user
programming. Human Computer
Interaction, Spring 1990.
Ballou, D, Pazer, H, Belardo, S and Klein,
B. (1987) Implication of Data Quality for
Spreadsheet Analysis.
McGill, T and Klobas, J (2005) The role of
spreadsheet knowledge in user-developed
application success. Decision Support
Systems 39 (2005) P 355-369
Teo, T.S.H and Eng Lee-Patridge, J (2001)
Effects of error factors and prior
incremental practice on spreadsheet error
detection: an experimental study. Omega
29 (2001) P 445-456
Howe, H and Simkin, M (2006) Factors
Affecting the Ability to Detect Spreadsheet
Errors. Decision Sciences Journal of
Innovative Education. 4 (1) January 2006.
Powell, S, Baker, K and Lawson, B (2009)
Impact of errors in operational
spreadsheets. Decision Support Systems
47 (2009) P 126-132
Banks D., Monday A. “Interpretation As A
Factor
In
Understanding
Flawed
Spreadsheets”. Proceedings of EuSpRIG
2002 Symposium. University of Wales
Institute Cardiff, UK July 2002
Goswami S, Hock Chuan C, Hee Woong K. The
Role of Visualization Tools in Spreadsheet Error
Correction from a Cognitive Fit Perspective.
Journal Of The Association For Information
Systems [serial online]. June 2008;9(6):321-
display data.
This paper examines the impact of deficiencies in data
quality on the results generated for spreadsheet
applications. The purpose is to describe a framework
which can be systematically used to determine the
relative importance of potential errors in operational and
judgemental data.
This paper reports on a study to investigate the role of
spreadsheet knowledge in the successful use of
spreadsheet applications. It considers both the
spreadsheet knowledge of the user developer and the
spreadsheet knowledge of the user and tests a model of
the effect of spreadsheet knowledge on the success of a
user-developed spreadsheet application.
This paper reports on an experiment conducted to
examine the rate of detection of both quantitative and
qualitative errors in two domain-free spreadsheets. A
detailed list and explanation of the types of common
spreadsheet errors are presented.
This article examines the subject of spreadsheet error
detection in detail and describes an experiment designed
to identify those factors influencing the error-detection
capabilities of a sample of spreadsheet users.
This study estimates the quantitative impacts of errors in
25 operational spreadsheets from five different
organisations. 381 potential errors were discovered, 117
were confirmed as errors. The largest error was $100
million.
This paper considers the problems of both mechanical
production and the problems of translation of problem to
spreadsheet representation. `
This study investigates the role of visualisation tools in
spreadsheet error correction. For this purpose, the study
proposes a framework classifying activities associated
with spreadsheet error correction. The framework is to
343.
highlight the activities that are important for correcting
different times of spreadsheet errors, and to show how
different visualisation tools can aid error correction by
effectively supporting these activities.
Kobielus J. Spreadsheet governance is a must.
Network World [serial online]. November 13,
2006:43
An editorial is presented discussing the importance of
spreadsheet governance in master data management. The
author states that he recognizes that spreadsheets are one of
the primary client applications for viewing and working with
master reference data from corporate data warehouses, a use
which makes it easy for the users to disregard the MDM
controls regulating data warehouse operations. He argues that
spreadsheet governance should be a main component of
every organization's MDM and regulatory-compliance strategies
and that organizations must also be able to identify which
spreadsheet version a certain user relied on at a particular
time.
The article focuses on Quaker Chemical Corp. which uses datawarehouse tools to extract custom data from its PeopleSoft
application and fold it into spreadsheets for mobile users. A
data warehouse now pushes enterprise resource planning
(ERP) data out to some users. The push approach is a logical
next step for Quaker Chemical, which four years ago
implemented a single-instance ERP system to eliminate the
multiple ERP applications at each of its regional sites. The
company also integrated its existing clustered Windows 2000
SAS 9 data-warehouse system with the PeopleSoft ERP
application.
Higgins
K.
ERP
Informationweek
2005;(1040):52-53
Goes On The Road.
[serial online]. May 23,
Hyle R. What Do You Know?. Techdecisions
[serial online]. October 2007;9(10):10
The article discusses the decision of Folksamerica Reinsurance
in 2005 to create an enterprise data warehouse and associated
reports for loss-reserving and other critical business processes.
The loss-reserving system is aimed at replacing the Excel
spreadsheet reserving system used by the company. The
company created a pilot project for all the business
intelligence vendors wherein the reinsurer gave the vendors
information and required them to return with reports. As of
2007, the capability of the data warehouse is being
demonstrated to senior managers.
Catherine Ma, David C. Chou, David C. Yen,
(2000) "Data warehousing, technology
Data warehousing is the technological trend for the
corporate decision support process. This article investigates
assessment and management", Industrial
Management & Data Systems, Vol. 100 Iss: 3,
pp.125 – 135
the current business environment of the data warehouse,
including OLAP, data mining, data visualization and other
technologies. This article also analyzes the importance of
data warehouse management and maintenance and its
future developments.
Saran C. Cognos takes the place of easyJet's
Excel. Computer Weekly [serial online]. July 4,
2006;:25
The article focuses on the move of budget airline, easyJet
Airline Co. Ltd. to incorporate Cognos Inc.'s enterprise
resource planning software inplace of Excel workbooks, the
system that it was earlier using. It is stated that Cognos
Planning is being used across all of easyJet's fixed costs and
consolidated profit and loss accounts. Paul Gibson, easyJet's
planning and analysis manager, said that the company
struggled with spreadsheets due to the complexity of the
planning models and also had problems collating information
The article evaluates the Strategic Investment Management
Blueprint from IBM Corporation and its Cognos unit.
KARLIN B. Better Than Spreadsheets. Treasury
& Risk [serial online]. February 2009;:18
Thomas D. Virgin Holidays boosts planning.
Computer Weekly [serial online]. September 2,
2003;:8
Tour operator Virgin Holidays Ltd. expects to boost margins and
improve forecasting after completing the implementation of a
centralized planning system. The move reflects the increasing
importance of accurate planning and forecasting for travel
companies, which have seen margins squeezed by the
emergence of online agents, low cost airlines and the downturn
in travel following terrorist attacks, the Iraq war and the
outbreak of the SARS disease. The enterprise planning system
from Cognos Inc., will replace a variety of different forecasting
spreadsheets and will integrate product and brochure
planning with operational data such as costs and resources.
This will mean all departments, including sales, marketing, call
center and passenger services, will have an improved
understanding of Virgin Holidays' product, brochure and sales
channel profitability, said Ashley Royston, general manager of
product and commercial at the operator.
Coffee P. QlikView helps users explore wealth of
data. Eweek [serial online]. August 4,
2003;20(31):47
Software company QlikTech International AB's QlikView 6 is a
relatively self-contained solution that takes advantage of
memory-rich machines to build interactive front ends for
exploring and presenting information from many sources.
QlikView 6's advanced core design, extended in May 2003,
update with new options for integrating local and server
operations, is somewhat offset by a Windows-centric
implementation that seems a little last-century. QlikView's
design metaphor of documents driven by scripts resembles
some early-1990s efforts to add more custom programmability
to the spreadsheet metaphor. QlikView is not as complex as
many network-based competitors, in that it avoids the need for
an IT shop to adopt and understand an extended platform such
as Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition.
Anders Rom, Carsten Rohde, (2006)
"Enterprise resource planning systems,
strategic enterprise management systems
and management accounting: A Danish
study", Journal of Enterprise Information
Management, Vol. 19 Iss: 1, pp.50 - 66
Konicki, S (2000) Break Out. Information
Week, December 18, 2000.
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of
knowledge about to what extent integrated information
systems, such as ERP and SEM systems, affect the ability
to solve different management accounting tasks.
This article discusses how getting locked into an ERP suite
is less of a concern in present times as vendors have been
adding new functionality and introducing a broader range of
integration schemes for third-party apps.