Modeling Spreadsheet Audit: A Rigorous Approach to Automatic Visualization

Sajaniemi, Jorma

doi:10.1006/jvlc.1999.0142

Cited by 56 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Many of these approaches use visualization techniques to support user understanding, and several specifically visualize the data flow or dependencies within the spreadsheets. Dependencies between different parts of the spreadsheets are, for example, visualized in animations [9], in three-dimensional space [8], or in larger blocks of formulas [16]. Other approaches visualize the dependencies of the entire workbook in a graph like structure [6] and apply visual abstraction techniques to make the graph manageable [11,7].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A methodology for constructing the calculation model of scientific spreadsheets

Vos¹,

Wielemaker²,

Schreiber³

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Knowledge Capture

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Spreadsheets models are frequently used by scientists to analyze research data. These models are typically described in a paper or a report, which serves as single source of information on the underlying research project. As the calculation workflow in these models is not made explicit, readers are not able to fully understand how the research results are calculated, and trace them back to the underlying spreadsheets. This paper proposes a methodology for semiautomatically deriving the calculation workflow underlying a set of spreadsheets. The starting point of our methodology is the cell dependency graph, representing all spreadsheet cells and connections. We automatically aggregate all cells in the graph that represent instances and duplicates of the same quantities, based on analysis of the formula syntax. Subsequently, we use a set of heuristics, incorporating knowledge on spreadsheet design, computational procedures and domain knowledge, to select those quantities, that are relevant for understanding the calculation workflow. We explain and illustrate our methodology by actually applying it on three sets of spreadsheets from existing research projects in the domains of environmental and life science. Results from these case studies show that our constructed calculation models approximate the ground truth calculation workflows, both in terms of content and size, but are not a perfect match.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A methodology for constructing the calculation model of scientific spreadsheets

Vos¹,

Wielemaker²,

Schreiber³

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Knowledge Capture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Focusing supporting users in their use of spreadsheet and often encouraging a more disciplined or rigours approach to development and use (including automated assessment of quality features), (Burnett et al Burnett 2002, Hendry and Green 1994, Hermans and Dig 2014, Panko and Sprague 1998, Sajaniemi 2000.…”

Section: Why Spreadsheets?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualising Formula Structures to Support Exploratory Modelling

Roast

Leitão

Gunning

2016

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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Abstract:Visualisation is often presented as a means of simplifying information and helping people understand complex data. In this paper we describe a project designing interactive visualisations to support core learner competencies in the broad area of numeracy. The work builds upon: (i) the observation that while spreadsheets are traditional ICT tools, their widespread use means that they are often introduced as a means of exploring basic mathematical modelling; (ii) a research theme examining the human factors that influence the ease with which formal notations can be understood and applied appropriately. Our paper describes the iterative design and evaluation of a tool to visualise spreadsheets, with the aim of supporting mid-teen learners based on the premise that spreadsheets serve as a gateway tool for supporting learner experimentation and confidence within numerate subjects. This iterative process is informed by background research into notational design, graphic design as well as learner and tutor feedback.

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“…Although there are already a couple of possible methods to either enforce a systematic development of spreadsheets, according to software engineering principles (see [4,14,22,15] or to reduce the error rate of already existing spreadsheets, by testing (see [1,23,21]) or auditing (see [3,24] and other commercially distributed tools), they are still not widely accepted. One reason for the poor acceptance of approaches that require a systematic development of spreadsheet programs is the nature of the spreadsheet as a prototyping tool itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heuristics for the automatic identification of irregularities in spreadsheets

Clermont

2005

Proceedings of the First Workshop on End-User Software Engineering - WEUSE I

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Spreadsheet programs turned out to be the most popular end-user programming environment that has ever been released. Important decisions are based on the results of spreadsheet programs and the list of known errors with large impact is growing daily-although it surely is only the top of an iceberg.One way out of the crisis might be the introduction of software engineering techniques into spreadsheet development. Suggestions for the improvement of spreadsheet development range back as far as into the late eighties, but none has been successful yet. We argue this is either because not enough effort is put into the roll-out of the technique to the users and, mainly, because they neglect the fact that spreadsheet programmers are end-users, not willing or not able to spend any time on learning software engineering methods. We found out that most end users are willing to verify their spreadsheets, but only view have the time and skills to do really systematic testing of spreadsheets.We developed an approach to generate two orthogonal abstract representations of spreadsheet programs that are then displayed to the user by different visualisation techniques to support the auditing process. Usually, irregularities in the visualisation point out hot-spots on the spreadsheet with a high likelihood of erroneous formulas. In this paper we present new heuristics for identifying hot spots that are very efficient for large spreadsheet programs.

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Modeling Spreadsheet Audit: A Rigorous Approach to Automatic Visualization

Cited by 56 publications

References 12 publications

A methodology for constructing the calculation model of scientific spreadsheets

A methodology for constructing the calculation model of scientific spreadsheets

Visualising Formula Structures to Support Exploratory Modelling

Heuristics for the automatic identification of irregularities in spreadsheets

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