User-developed software

Themes: Software Engineering concepts Operational Risk

See the list of related resources at the bottom of this page.

User-developed software is, as its name suggests, software that is developed by users rather than by specialist developers. It includes spreadsheets, parameter driven financial models, personal databases, VB code, and so on.

Caution: user-developed systems may be hazardous to your organization
Davis, 1981

User-developed software has many advantages, and can really leverage the expertise of those users. You, the users, maintain control over the system being developed; you hope for rapid turnaround on modifications; and a whole layer of communication is removed from between the concepts being modelled and the people doing the implementation.

However, the expertise of the user is unlikely to included extensive software engineering experience. Many systems developed by users end up being very large and complex, and are not as easy to maintain and enhance as they should be. Moreover, as they are often not subject to rigorous quality controls, they may contain significant bugs, be hard to use and lack robustness.

Resources

Ray Panko: Professor Panko, who is at the University of Hawaii, has done a great deal of research into spreadsheet errors. His page at http://panko.cba.hawaii.edu/ssr/ has many useful resources, including links to many of his papers.
Is this spreadsheet a tax evader?: This paper, by Ray Butler of H.M. Customs and Excise, summarises the audit experience, describes the methodology and outlines the results to date of a campaign of spreadsheet testing started in July of 1999. Of the seven spreadsheets selected for audit, six contained significant errors. It was published in the proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in 2000, and is available at http://www.eusprig.org/hicss33-butler-evader.pdf.
European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group: This special interest group provides a forum for research on spreadsheets. Its website is at http://www.eusprig.org and includes an excellent collection of spreadsheet horror stories. EuSpRIG organises an annual conference on spreadsheet risks.

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User-developed software Themes: Software Engineering concepts Operational Risk See the list of related resources at the bottom of this page. User-developed software is, as its name suggests, software that is developed by users rather than by specialist developers. It includes spreadsheets, parameter driven financial models, personal databases, VB code, and so on. Caution: user-developed systems may be hazardous to your organization Davis, 1981 User-developed software has many advantages, and can really leverage the expertise of those users. You, the users, maintain control over the system being developed; you hope for rapid turnaround on modifications; and a whole layer of communication is removed from between the concepts being modelled and the people doing the implementation. However, the expertise of the user is unlikely to included extensive software engineering experience. Many systems developed by users end up being very large and complex, and are not as easy to maintain and enhance as they should be. Moreover, as they are often not subject to rigorous quality controls, they may contain significant bugs, be hard to use and lack robustness. Resources Ray Panko Professor Panko, who is at the University of Hawaii, has done a great deal of research into spreadsheet errors. His page at http://panko.cba.hawaii.edu/ssr/ has many useful resources, including links to many of his papers. Is this spreadsheet a tax evader? This paper, by Ray Butler of H.M. Customs and Excise, summarises the audit experience, describes the methodology and outlines the results to date of a campaign of spreadsheet testing started in July of 1999. Of the seven spreadsheets selected for audit, six contained significant errors. It was published in the proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in 2000, and is available at http://www.eusprig.org/hicss33-butler-evader.pdf. European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group This special interest group provides a forum for research on spreadsheets. Its website is at http://www.eusprig.org and includes an excellent collection of spreadsheet horror stories. EuSpRIG organises an annual conference on spreadsheet risks.
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