Abstract:

Faced with similar challenges as professional software engineers, end-user developers respond to them in a substantially different manner: their actions are characterized by a lack of the application of a systematical, disciplined, measurable approach to development, management and maintenance of end-user developed software. The reason for this lies not only in the absence of formal ICT education, professional knowledge and skills (which is a determining characteristic of end-user developers), but also the motives they are driven by for end-user development. Focusing on spreadsheets as the most used platform of end-user development that is typically taught at business schools (but also educational institutions of other provenance), this paper looks into the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of end-user software engineering in the context of the possibility of introducing these into the syllabus of business oriented higher education institutions.

Keywords:

End-user development, end-user software engineering, spreadsheets.