Developing Advanced Scientific Engineering Spreadsheet Applications

A two day training course on developing advanced spreadsheet applications.

Aims & Objectives

To enable scientists and engineers to develop advanced spreadsheet applications which meet the requirements for accuracy critical applications.

Background

Spreadsheets are widely used by scientists and engineers because of their ease of use for the analysis and presentation of results. However, spreadsheets errors are both common and often very difficult to detect. In addition, there are the inherent errors built into the most widely used spreadsheets, which can result in strange computation errors. NPL's own experience over many years is that the most effective antidote is to treat the development of spreadsheet applications as a software development project.

Course Content

The course will consist of presentations and hands-on exercises using Excel, and will cover the following:

• Basic approach to spreadsheet development, including:
• Problems
• Suitability for RAD or rapid prototyping or XP
• Risk analysis approach to determine software development techniques required to produce spreadsheet application
• Replacement of formulas
• Values between Arrays and Ranges
• Spreadsheet application documentation and user interaction
• Simple validation
• Spreadsheet integrity and testing
• A brief introduction to delivery of spreadsheet applications and quality assurance issues

Intended Audience

Scientists and engineers involved in developing advanced spreadsheet applications in their work.

Prior Knowledge

The course is suited to attendees with a science or engineering background, knowledge of Excel and some experience of programming. For those who register for the course, some material will be provided on VBA for Excel which should be read before attending the course.

Lecturing Team

The course will be given by Graeme Parkin and Robin Barker. Graeme has worked on software validation for some years. He has used formal methods for both specification and proof of properties of systems. He also has practical experience of managing and developing software developments. Robin has also worked on software validation for some years and used formal methods for both specification and testing of systems. Both Graeme and Robin are co-authors of the Best Practice Guide on which the course is based.

Documentation

Attendees will receive a complete set of course notes, a copy of the Software Support for Metrology, Best Practice Guide No 7, Development and Testing of Spreadsheet Applications, December 2006, model answers to all the exercises and a recommended book list.

Contact

For enquiries or further information about the above course, please contact: Graeme Parkin
or
E-mail: ssfm_events@npl.co.uk

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 This course has been endorsed by the Institute of Physics (IOP):

• If you are a member of the IOP, you will receive a 10% discount on the course fee
• CPD points will be awarded on this course at a rate of 3 per hour