Spreadsheets are arguably the most widely used programming language in use
today, yet spreadsheets commonly contain errors. Research shows that regardless
of the experience of the end user, an alarming number of spreadsheets contain
errors (91% in recent field audits). Most spreadsheets are created by end users with
little or no programming experience. Unfortunately, software engineering research
has largely ignored these users. In an attempt to reduce this high error rate, our
research is aimed at bringing the benefits of software engineering to end users
without requiring that they first learn software engineering principles. One
mechanism for creating error-free programs is assertions. An assertion is a program
property that always holds. It provides a way to attach more of the specification to
the program. We have developed an assertion tool for spreadsheet languages that
extends Microsoft Excel's validation scheme and includes capabilities such as
assertion propagation. This work describes an empirical study done to assess how
well end users understand and use the information provided by the assertion tool as
they perform maintenance tasks. The study also provides information about end
users' testing behavior. / Graduation date: 2002
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/28800 |
| Date | 23 August 2001 |
| Creators | Wallace, Christine A. |
| Contributors | Cook, Curtis R. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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