Improving spreadsheet test practices
Felienne Hermans · Figshare · 2013
Current testing practices for spreadsheets are ad hoc in nature: spreadsheet users put 'test formulas' in their spreadsheets to validate out-comes. In this paper we show that this practice is common, by analyzing a large set of spread-sheets from practice to investigate if spread-sheet users are currently testing. In a follow up analysis, we study the test practices found in this set to deeply understand the way in which spreadsheet users test, in lack of formal testing methods. Subsequently, we describe the Ex-pector approach to extract formulas that are already present in a spreadsheet, presenting these formulas to the user and suggesting im-provements, both on the level of individual test formulas as on the spreadsheet as a whole by increasing the coverage of the test formulas. Fi-nally, we o er support to understand why a test formula is breaking. We end the paper with an example underlining the applicability of our approach.