Products & Publications

› Home

› About Us

› Useful Links

› Full Project Description

› Products & Publications

› Contact Us

SPREADSHEET ENGINEERING RESEARCH PROJECT

PRODUCTS & PUBLICATIONS

Several products and publications have been completed as part of the Spreadsheet Engineering Research Project. Downloadable files for these items are described below. They are divided into three categories -- survey results, error research, and bibliography.

The SERP Survey and its Analysis

The SERP Team has completed three papers presenting a variety of results from the 1600 survey responses received from various organizations. The first paper describes current spreadsheet use in organizations, largely confirming the gap that exists between actual practice and best practice. Moreover, our results indicate that this gap occurs not only in the skills of individual users but also in the policies of large organizations. The next paper provides a comparison of the characteristics and practices of designers and users at two extremes of experience. The third paper provides a tool for measuring the degree of risk in an organization and insights into the practices designers and users employ to minimize risk and eliminate errors.

Download the paper "A Survey of MBA Spreadsheet Users" (doc)

Download the paper "A Comparison of Spreadsheet Use with Different Levels of Experience" (pdf)

Download the paper "Spreadsheet Risk, Awareness, and Control" (doc)

Documents Associated with the Survey Research

The documents available are the 67-question survey and the summary of the survey responses.

Download the SERP on-line survey (doc)

Download the SERP on-line survey results (doc)

Research on Errors in Spreadsheets

The SERP Team has completed four papers dealing with spreadsheet errors. The first of these papers reviews the existing error research. A second paper discusses the auditing protocol used by the SERP team to discover and characterize errors. The third paper contains the results of the error analysis conducted on 50 spreadsheets that were being used by companies. The fourth paper attempts to evaluate the impact of errors.

Download the paper "A Critical Review of the Literature on Spreadsheet Errors" (pdf)

Download the paper "An Auditing Protocol for Spreadsheet Models" (pdf)

Download the paper "Errors in Operational Spreadsheets" (pdf)

Download the paper "Impact of Errors in Operational Spreadsheets" (pdf)

Documents Associated with the Error Research

Along with the papers analyzing errors, three associated products are available. The first two describe the auditing protocol and template used by the SERP team to analyze 50 miscellaneous spreadsheets drawn from practice. The third was used in the impact study.