The Case *For* Spreadsheets

Contra my previous case against spreadsheets, spreadsheets do have one outstanding value: use them to drive and prioritise work in a systems transformation or automation project. Spend a couple of days identifying the spreadsheets used in your business, then prioritise them according to risk first and efficiency second.

Prioritising by risk and efficiency is straightforward:

• Any spreadsheets containing personal information, especially case notes (considered medical records in many situations), go to the top of the list.

For the efficiency prioritisation:

• Prioritise based on the number of humans using the spreadsheet, starting with care workers and moving to team leaders and schedulers.

• Look for spreadsheets used by the most people and prioritise those at the top of the second list.

• Further prioritise by determining which ones are used most frequently.

• The number of humans multiplied by frequency puts things at the top of the second list.

This simple prioritisation method helps guide your work. If the information can be easily moved into an existing strategic system, do so if it's quick. If not, build a temporary custom app to house the information, which can be decommissioned later while you select a suitable product.

It’s also worth recognising the value of spreadsheets as a citizen development tool – that is, it’s a safety valve for business users to semi-automate their work when they have no alternative choice. The trick here is to sanction this, have a central register and, as above, treat these as your highest-priority tasks to automate in IT. Then you get the best of both worlds.

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/