Live Inspection of Spreadsheets

TL;DR

This paper presents a live inspection system for spreadsheets that detects anomalies immediately as users make changes, integrating seamlessly into their workflow and providing real-time visual reports and tracking tools.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel live inspection approach for spreadsheets, implemented within the Spreadsheet Inspection Framework, enabling real-time anomaly detection and user-friendly visualization.

Findings

Users find the live inspection approach useful

The system effectively reports anomalies without disrupting workflow

Real-time tracking helps prioritize and resolve issues

Abstract

Existing approaches for detecting anomalies in spreadsheets can help to discover faults, but they are often applied too late in the spreadsheet lifecycle. By contrast, our approach detects anomalies immediately whenever users change their spreadsheets. This live inspection approach has been implemented as part of the Spreadsheet Inspection Framework, enabling the tool to visually report findings without disturbing the users' workflow. An advanced list representation allows users to keep track of the latest findings, prioritize open problems, and check progress on solving the issues. Results from a first user study indicate that users find the approach useful.