Is Excel the most dangerous piece of software in the world?
- Thread starter bobhc
- Start date
Sounds more like user error to me. Someone should have set up some basic worksheet protection, or data auditing. BTW, this line:
is absolute garbage. There's plenty of ways to do formula audits, precedent trace-back, etc.
Rather than manually copying and pasting as the article said, if someone had setup a macro to do the data transfers, there would have been far less errors. Complete irresponsibility on the part of the workbook creator.
is absolute garbage. There's plenty of ways to do formula audits, precedent trace-back, etc.
Rather than manually copying and pasting as the article said, if someone had setup a macro to do the data transfers, there would have been far less errors. Complete irresponsibility on the part of the workbook creator.
NARAYANK991
Excel Ninja
Hi Bob ,
Similar disasters have happened throughout history.
Even more spectacular than this must be the Mars Orbiter disaster.
Nothing in itself is as dangerous as the human beings who make use of it. To quote from the article :
[pre]
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Surely , the organization should be blamed for allowing untrained people to develop unaudited systems to be used by unskilled users !
Again , this is the argument given by proponents of gun control ; but the majority in the US doesn't seem to buy it.
Narayan
Similar disasters have happened throughout history.
Even more spectacular than this must be the Mars Orbiter disaster.
Nothing in itself is as dangerous as the human beings who make use of it. To quote from the article :
[pre]
Code:
Kwak wonders if the very ease of use that Excel offers — allowing people with no programming
experience to knock together what are, in effect, relatively advanced applets — also makes it
dangerous to use in most sensitive situations. There's no debug, no audit trail, and no way to test
why a spreadsheet returns the value it does. Similarly, training for Excel, where it exists, tends
to ignore the importance of elegant and well-designed code, leading to legacy spreadsheets being
used with internal workings which are opaque to all but their original creator, who may have left
the company 20 years earlier.Surely , the organization should be blamed for allowing untrained people to develop unaudited systems to be used by unskilled users !
Again , this is the argument given by proponents of gun control ; but the majority in the US doesn't seem to buy it.
Narayan
bobhc
Excel Ninja
Good day Luke M and Narayan
It is difficult to understand that a company of that size would not have professionals to create their Excel....but I did find it somewhat puzzling that a so called tech reporter could put so many ill-conceived passages about the lack of training and the absence of debugging and audit trail ect.ect. in the article.
The lack of professional training in the reporters may be a reason the NewStatseman has such a low reader level.
It is difficult to understand that a company of that size would not have professionals to create their Excel....but I did find it somewhat puzzling that a so called tech reporter could put so many ill-conceived passages about the lack of training and the absence of debugging and audit trail ect.ect. in the article.
The lack of professional training in the reporters may be a reason the NewStatseman has such a low reader level.
NARAYANK991
Excel Ninja
Hi Bob ,
A major portion of the road accidents in India , are due to either ill-trained or over-enthusiastic or underage drivers ; whom do we blame ?
The drivers , the victims , the vehicle manufacturers or Benz for having invented such a dangerous piece of equipment ?
Narayan
A major portion of the road accidents in India , are due to either ill-trained or over-enthusiastic or underage drivers ; whom do we blame ?
The drivers , the victims , the vehicle manufacturers or Benz for having invented such a dangerous piece of equipment ?
Narayan
Sajan
Excel Ninja
Hi Bob,
I think the author was attempting to make his article controversial so as to generate some debate and interest, which it would not have garnered otherwise. (Afterall, we are discussing it!! I would not have otherwise read that article!)
Having said that, due to the ease of using Excel, a lot of organizations have "shadow" applications built using Excel. i.e. a user would create something for a temporary need, but then keep tweaking it until it is deemed mission critical to the organization. That does not say anything about Excel as a tool. However, it might be a commentary on an organization's IS/IT group's ability to support all of their users in a timely fashion.
-Sajan.
I think the author was attempting to make his article controversial so as to generate some debate and interest, which it would not have garnered otherwise. (Afterall, we are discussing it!! I would not have otherwise read that article!)
Having said that, due to the ease of using Excel, a lot of organizations have "shadow" applications built using Excel. i.e. a user would create something for a temporary need, but then keep tweaking it until it is deemed mission critical to the organization. That does not say anything about Excel as a tool. However, it might be a commentary on an organization's IS/IT group's ability to support all of their users in a timely fashion.
-Sajan.
shrivallabha
Excel Ninja
In wrong hands, anything can become lethal.
Faseeh
Excel Ninja
I think it is users who feel they are competent to do something and ignore the risk attached with this.
I once tried to use SPSS for analyzing data and creating a regression model from it. Although i have studied this software in class room, when i showed the workout to my teacher, he pointed out some conceptual mistakes, not operational that were fatal.
So users should have the risk in their mind.
I once tried to use SPSS for analyzing data and creating a regression model from it. Although i have studied this software in class room, when i showed the workout to my teacher, he pointed out some conceptual mistakes, not operational that were fatal.
So users should have the risk in their mind.