Abstract:

Despite the fact that they are easy to use, flexible and powerful, spreadsheets are still regarded as one of the world’s potentially most dangerous business software. The reason for this are spreadsheet errors, which became their inevitable epithet as early as the first days of their existence. The detrimental consequences of spreadsheet errors are documented in numerous professional, but also daily press articles. Several pieces of research point to the possible key to the solution of this problem: pointing out that the common cause of errors is users’ overconfidence stemming from their insufficient knowledge, it is stated that raising the users’ awareness of the existence, types and possible consequences of errors are an efficient method of reducing them. Starting from the assumption that the effects of such an approach may be multiplied by appropriate presentation of suitable taxonomy errors as soon as during spreadsheet courses (especially within university courses), this article presents selected error taxonomies which could, in the authors’ opinion, become the standard content of spreadsheet related courses.

Keywords:

Spreadsheets, taxonomies of spreadsheet errors, end-user development, university courses.