A Framework for the Identification of Spreadsheet Usage Patterns

Spreadsheets are omnipresent in today’s enterprises, in particular for supporting business users in their decision-making. Thereby, they are used in various ways to support business processes, i.a., in the areas of financial reporting, resource management, and project management. However, shortcomings of prevalent spreadsheet software (e.g., limited collaboration support) have negative impacts onto the risk and compliance efforts which are dictated by both the company’s goal of reducing the risk of financial losses as well as by legal regulations. Due to the variety of spreadsheet usages, there cannot be single solution addressing all those shortcomings. It is necessary to define classes of spreadsheet usages in order to be able to develop tailored solutions for each of those classes. Therefore, in this paper we show the results of an empirical study on spreadsheet usages, which we conducted in two companies. Based on those results we propose a morphological box as a classification framework for determining patterns of spreadsheet usages. Those patterns can serve as a foundation for future research focusing on specific spreadsheet usage patterns, e.g., the design of tailored solution approaches for enhancing the support of business processes.