Brian Bishop

Test-driven development: can it work for spreadsheets?

It is widely documented that the absence of a structured approach to spreadsheet engineering is a key factor in the high level of spreadsheet errors. In this paper we propose and investigate the application of Test-Driven Development to the creation of spreadsheets. Test-Driven Development is an emerging development technique in software engineering that has been shown to result in better quality software code. It has also been shown that this code requires less testing and is easier to maintain. Through a set of case studies we demonstrate that Test-Driven Development can be applied to the development of spreadsheets. We present the detail of these studies preceded by a clear explanation of the technique and its application to spreadsheet engineering. A supporting tool under development by the authors is also documented along with proposed research to determine the effectiveness of the methodology and the associated tool.

Spreadsheet debugging behaviour of expert and novice end-users

In recent years the reliability of end-user developed spreadsheet programs has been shown to be very poor. Surprisingly, relatively little research has been carried out in the areas of spreadsheet testing and debugging. With the aim of recording and analysing end-user behaviour and performance in spreadsheet error detection and correction, an experiment was conducted with 13 industry-based professionals and 34 accounting & finance students. The work utilised a novel approach for acquiring experimental data through the unobtrusive recording of participants debugging actions using a custom built VBA tool. Based on the findings from analysis of debugging behaviour, a simple debugging tool was developed by the authors, and its effects on debugging performance were investigated by means of a controlled experiment.

Unobtrusive data acquisition for spreadsheet research

Spreadsheets are one of the most common end-user programming environments in use today, and their importance in the business world continues to grow. Although considered critical software tools in many industries, particularly the financial sector, it is now widely accepted that the reliability of end-user developed spreadsheets is very poor. In order to address this problem, recent research has focused on the design and development of tools to aid end-users in the testing and debugging of spreadsheets. But to design tools that complement end-users natural behaviour, a knowledge of their behaviour within the most common commercial spreadsheet environment (Excel) is required. This paper details the design and application of a novel, custom built, data acquisition tool, which can be used for the unobtrusive recording of end-users mouse, keyboard and Excel specific actions during the debugging of Excel spreadsheets. The data acquisition tool was utilised in experiments to investigate debugging behaviour, and consequently formed the basis for the development and evaluation of a cell-coverage based debugging tool.

Test-Driven development: can it work for spreadsheet engineering?

It is widely accepted that the absence of a structured approach to spreadsheet engineering is a key factor in the high level of spreadsheet errors. In this paper we propose and investigate the application of Test-Driven Development to the creation of spreadsheets. Through a pair of case studies we demonstrate that Test-Driven Development can be applied to the development of spreadsheets. A supporting tool under development by the authors is also documented along with proposed research to determine the effectiveness of the methodology and the associated tool.

Intelligent Voice Navigation of Spreadsheets

Interaction with software systems has become second nature to most computer users, however when voice recognition is introduced, this simple procedure becomes quite complex. To reduce this complexity for spreadsheet users, the authors have developed an intelligent voice navigation system called iVoice. This paper outlines the iVoice system and details an experiment that was conducted to determine the efficiency of iVoice when compared to a leading voice recognition technology.