I hate spreadsheets because I think they are reaching the tipping point where they create bigger problems than they solve. And intelligence is no guarantee that you will not make whoppers. In the dim and distant past, I audited about 200 spreadsheets used by traders on the fixed income department of one of the leading investment banks of the world.
These spreadsheets were very complex ones, being used to price structured products which have loads of credit, fixed income, derivatives, long complicated power structures, etc. etc. And I did not find a single spreadsheet which was error free. Some had date issues, some had data issues, presentation issues, logical problems, etc. etc.
Why is this? this is because spreadsheets are too easy to use and give you AN ANSWER. And the tendency of a human being is to believe the damn thing shown on the screen. The same reason we tend to believe stuff on the Internet. Or why I still get crappy forwards of some poor bugger who is facing imminent destruction if I do not forward the email to 20 million other buggers!.
Also, because of the way spreadsheets are constructed, they lend themselves to silly problems, something which you wouldn't see in a proper program or computer system. This is why I firmly believe that if a spreadsheet is to be used for more than 3 cycles (deals, reports, months, whatever) we need to convert that into an application. And believe you me, you will find that it is cost effective once you put in the problems of updating it, losing it, documenting it, losing the chap who made it, etc. etc.
Incidentally, I was sent this link to a spreadsheet engineering research project at the Tuck Business School in Darthmouth, USA. Quite an interesting project. In particular, read this document which lays out a survey of people on awareness, risk and control aspects of spreadsheets.
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