A Primer on Spreadsheet Analytics
Thomas A. Grossman

TL;DR
This paper offers a comprehensive overview of spreadsheet analytics, detailing techniques, automation methods, and future research directions for extracting insights from spreadsheet models.
Contribution
It introduces native Excel approaches and discusses add-ins for enhancing spreadsheet analysis, filling gaps in automation and efficiency.
Findings
Native Excel methods for sensitivity analysis and goal-seeking
Discussion of add-ins for improved efficiency
Call for empirical research and feature development in spreadsheet tools
Abstract
This paper provides guidance to an analyst who wants to extract insight from a spreadsheet model. It discusses the terminology of spreadsheet analytics, how to prepare a spreadsheet model for analysis, and a hierarchy of analytical techniques. These techniques include sensitivity analysis, tornado charts,and backsolving (or goal-seeking). This paper presents native-Excel approaches for automating these techniques, and discusses add-ins that are even more efficient. Spreadsheet optimization and spreadsheet Monte Carlo simulation are briefly discussed. The paper concludes by calling for empirical research, and describing desired features spreadsheet sensitivity analysis and spreadsheet optimization add-ins.
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Taxonomy
TopicsSpreadsheets and End-User Computing
