Mischief in Six Minutes: A Demonstration of Poor Spreadsheeting Practice

There are lots of books and online content out there that teach Excel functionality.  While these are handy resources to learn about Excel commands like crafting VLOOKUP formulas and writing macros, I am finding that almost all “how-to” content stop short of relating functionalities with implications of their use – i.e., how the functionalities, or the way we use them, contribute to (or detract from) the overall quality of the spreadsheet.  A high quality spreadsheet helps protect your data, expose errors and can change your life at work.  A poor quality spreadsheet, however, can do the opposite by polluting the data structure and masking mistakes.  What is not clear though is how the Excel functionalities we choose and use in our spreadsheets, deliberately or otherwise, move us toward either end of the spectrum.

That is why we made this video clip – to start making connections between functionality, usage and business implications.  We share a few examples of how seemingly harmless functionalities, like changing font colors and cell formats, can be the source of serious mischief.  The voice in the clip belongs to Steve.  In six minutes, he will show you how data can be concealed or disguised in a spreadsheet, sometimes in plain sight!

Steve and I team up quite frequently to collaborate with clients on building spreadsheet management programs to prevent things like this from happening, and these examples stem from real observations in the field.  So, for the record, Steve and I discourage the practices demonstrated in the video.  But frankly, it’s much more fun to show you the evil stuff than to drone on about responsible stuff.

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