The Spreadsheets That Still Won’t Die

EkaLore has posted multiple times about spreadsheets that wouldn’t die. Spreadsheets created to solve an immediate need (e.g. new price calculation, inventory reconciliation…), live on long beyond their use. Found in enterprises everywhere, they are highly resistant to being killed by IT specialists, yet untrackable, resistant to auditing, and version control. Left unchecked they can cause real damage. What to do?

Even with the knowledge they can be easily corrupted, Spreadsheets can be found running the critical functions that deserve greater integrity– and they still won’t die:

· Critical data entry for tracking Covid cases

· Consolidating information in logistics

· Allocating and spending money for relief efforts

Excel/Sharepoint, OpenOffice, Google Sheets, Numbers can create these sorts of docs, and they all share the following properties:

· “Everywhere” — Easy to Create, to learn, to change and effortless to distribute

· Opaque – Mistakes are hard to identity, No easy way to improve data quality, and often unreadable by outsiders

· Provide compelling messages easily – Visually attractive Simple to summarize, Rich Charting/Visualization

Why are these properties painful for IT specialists?

· No self-documentation – Reasoning, data models, and calculations are not bound to any style, philosophy, or practice. (And even if they did, the next person could change all that)

· IT likes to “curate” data – checking accuracy, auditing correctness, fixing properties like timestamps and process steps

· Nobody needs IT specialists to make this appear to work

There are whole software companies dedicated to replacing spreadsheets with trackable, auditable, and easy to use enterprise applications. Many companies don’t have the resources or interest in making that investment. Our next two posts talk about what can be done without those specialized solutions.

Our next post deals with what general management can do to address the problem of Spreadsheets That Still Won’t Die (SSTWD).

Read our next installment on the EkaLore page or feed tomorrow.