Towards Safer Spreadsheets!

Professional programmers are well aware that debugging, testing, code inspection, etc. are part and parcel of software development. Requiring end users to carry out the same activities to reduce spreadsheet errors might be asking too much. For one thing, they lack the expertise and for another, they might not be willing to invest the time and effort required by these activities. For example, testing is a standard and effective technique for detecting faults in programs. The downside is that testing requires reasonable domain knowledge (to come up with effective test cases at the very least) and understanding of the program. End users might be deficient in one or both areas. Another problem arises from the lack of tool support for running test suites in currently available commercial spreadsheet systems. This forces users to run one test at a time, thereby taking up more time.