PPIG 2009 - 21st Annual Workshop
Can Named Ranges Improve the Debugging Performance of Novice Spreadsheet Users?
Ruth McKeever, Kevin McDaid, Brian Bishop
Abstract: This paper analyses the suitability of certain refactoring methods, in particular those concerning naming, to spreadsheet development, and the effect they can have on both spreadsheet quality and the behaviour of novice end-users. Spreadsheets are normally developed by the end user, and are rarely designed beforehand. They are extremely error prone and often business critical. While naming of ranges in spreadsheets is a recommended best practice, there is little supporting research. This paper describes an experiment to investigate the impact of range names on the debugging performance of novice spreadsheet users.