European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group

European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group Annual Conference 2003
EuSpRIG 4th Annual Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland July 24-25 2003 'Building Better Business Spreadsheets - from the adhoc to the quality-engineered' To obtain a copy of the conference proceedings, please contact David Chadwick at the University of Greenwich.
Conference Photographs

Sponsored by:
	European Computer Driving Licence Foundation
	Irish Computer Society
	KPMG Ireland and UK
	The Information Systems Audit and Control Association ISACA(Northern UK Chapter)
	Hosted by Systems Modelling Limited
Trinity College Front Square ( Visitor Information ) Programme Venue: Salmon Theatre in the Hamilton Conference Centre (campus map) DAY 1 : Thursday 24th July 11am: Registration opens 12 noon: Lunch in TCD Main Dining Hall 12.40pm: Welcome and Introduction Symposium president: Patrick O'Beirne, Systems Modelling Ltd Program Chair: David Chadwick, EuSpRIG Chair Organising Chair: Patrick Cleary, EuSpRIG Secretary Main sponsor: Garry Cleere of the European Computer Driving Licence Foundation (ECDLF) 1pm: Session 1 : Spreadsheet Risks – the perennial problem Chair: David Ward, KPMG Paper: 'Research Strategy & Scoping Survey on Spreadsheet Practices' T.Grossman, O.Ozluk Management Summary: 'Correctness Is Not Enough' Louise Pryor Paper: 'The Wall and The Ball - A Study of Domain Referent Spreadsheet Errors' Richard Irons Paper: 'Reducing Overconfidence In Spreadsheet Development' Ray Panko 3.00pm: Coffee in Hamilton concourse 3.30pm: Session 2 : Invited Speaker Chair: Ray Panko, University of Hawaii Invited Speaker: 'User Computing In Financial Regulation' Dean Buckner, Financial Services Authority, London 4.15pm: Session 3: Quality issues Paper: 'Accuracy In Spreadsheet Modelling Systems' T. Grossman Management Summary: 'Getting Spreadsheets Under Control- Practical Issues And Ideas' Barry Pettifor, PwC Management Summary: 'TEAM work: A CobIT Approach To Quality' David Chadwick Report from EuSpRIG presentation at EURO/INFORMS Conference 2003: Grenville Croll Finish 5.00pm Evening: 7:30pm Conference dinner Pre-dinner reception with Austrian wine sponsored by Terroirs of Donnybrook, Dublin DAY 2 : Friday 25th July 9.30am: Session 4 : Quality Engineering: Modelling Approaches Chair: David Chadwick Management Summary:'Issues in Strategic Decision Modelling' Paula Jennings Paper: 'Spreadsheet Debugging' Yirsaw Ayalew Paper: 'Audit and Change Analysis of Spreadsheets' John Nash 11.00: Coffee in Hamilton concourse 11.30: Session 5 : Quality Engineering: Demos and Products F1F9 (UK) Morten Siersted 'Code Tracer : A Spreadsheet Visualisation And Analysis Concept' Atebion: Barry Phillips 'Atebion's Answer To Mathematical Modelling' Chris Gorham, 'VBA Tools For Excel 2000' 12noon Session 6 : Initiatives from Academia Patrick Cleary, EuSpRIG Secretary 'Investigating The Use Of Software Agents To Reduce The Risk Of Undetected Errors In Strategic Spreadsheet Application' P. Cleary, D. Ball, S. Thorne, M. Madahar, C. Gosling, K. Fernandez; University of Wales Institute Cardiff 12.30 Lunch in TCD main dining hall 1.00 Panel: Quality Engineering : is it necessary, is it wanted, what does it mean? 2.00 Annual General Meeting: election of officers, invitation to EUSPRIG 2004 in Klagenfurt, Austria. All welcome to attend. 3.00 Guided tour of Trinity College including the famous Book of Kells. Book of Kells, 9th century illuminated manuscript
Session Abstracts User Computing In Financial Regulation. Dean Buckner, Financial Services Authority, London. A call for a "Highway Code" with audit standards for small systems that are both realistic and appropriate. Accuracy in Spreadsheet Modeling Systems Thomas A. Grossman OPMA, Haskayne School of Business, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Because industry has tolerance for system inaccuracy, errors in spreadsheet implementations may not be a serious concern. Spreadsheet productivity may be of more interest. The Wall and The Ball: A Study of Domain Referent Spreadsheet Errors Richard J. Irons Faculty of Business and Law Central Queensland University Australia. Spreadsheet error making is influenced by domain knowledge and domain perception. Qualitative findings also suggest that spreadsheet error making is a part of overall human behaviour. Research Strategy and Scoping Survey on Spreadsheet Practices Thomas A. Grossman OPMA, Haskayne School of Business, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and Özgür Özlük ISBA Department, College of Business, SFSU San Francisco, CA, USA. We propose a research strategy for creating and deploying prescriptive recommendations for spreadsheet practice ... existing practices and ideal practices can be combined into proposed best practices for deployment. Audit and change analysis of spreadsheets John C. Nash, Neil Smith, Andy Adler School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada. We present some tools we have developed to enable 1) the audit of selected, filtered, or all changes in a spreadsheet, that is, when a cell was changed, its original and new contents and who made the change, and 2) control of access to the spreadsheet file(s) so that auditing is trustworthy. Reducing Overconfidence in Spreadsheet Development Dr. Raymond R. Panko University of Hawai`i, USA. This paper describes two experiments in overconfidence in spreadsheet development. The first is a pilot study to determine the existence of overconfidence. The second tests a manipulation to reduce overconfidence and errors. Correctness is not enough Louise Pryor, Edinburgh, UK. It is often difficult to tell whether the spreadsheets in question are correct, and even if they are, they may still give the wrong results. These problems are explained in this paper, which presents the key criteria for judging a spreadsheet. Spreadsheet Debugging Yirsaw Ayalew, Department of Computer Science, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. This paper addresses the issue of efficiently debugging spreadsheets. Based on the interval-based testing methodology, this paper presents a technique that uses the dataflow information and cell marks to identify the most influential faulty cell(s) for a given formula cell containing a propagated fault. Getting Spreadsheets Under Control - Practical Issues And Ideas Barry Pettifor, Director – Business Modelling PricewaterhouseCoopers, UK. There is a balance to be struck between the spontaneity and flexibility which end-user tools bring, and the need to ensure that the results are sufficiently reliable for their purpose. Post Enron, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, businesses are starting to realise that they have become over-dependent on spreadsheets in some areas and are asking what to do to get it under control. TEAM work: Tools, Education, Audit, Management Since 1996, the Information Systems Audit & Control Foundation and the IT Governance Institute have published CobiT ® which brings mainstream IT control issues into the corporate governance arena. This paper illustrates how spreadsheet risk and control issues can be mapped onto the CobiT framework and thus brought to managers' attention in a familiar format. Spreadsheet Error Awareness & Agent Technology Mukul Madahar and Simon Thorne University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. Software agents can be deployed to autonomously search for spreadsheets on servers, external drives and local hard disks, and then categorise, analyse and report on them. Research is proposed to specify and develop Multi-Agent Systems based on the strategies formulated for the reduction of risk in categories of spreadsheet use. Issues in Strategic Decision Modelling Paula Jennings BDO Stoy Hayward The real options approach is based on the idea that there is value in waiting until more information is available; for this value to exist delay is making the decision must be possible. This is particularly important where high levels of uncertainty exist. Building on traditional approaches used in strategic planning modelling, real-options enables managers to take multi-contingencies into account, plan responses and phase actions accordingly. Product Demos a) CodeTracer - a Spreadsheet Visualisation and Analysis Concept b) Atebion - a mathematically- based tool to spreadsheet integrity c) Chris Gorham, 'VBA Tools For Excel 2000' Demo CDs, books, handouts, and other giveaways EXChecker demo CD from Byron Baynham of Spreadsheet Auditing Ltd. "Mr Excel on Excel" book by Bill Jelen and wall clock to be raffled

Programme Committee David Chadwick (Chair) University of Greenwich Grenville Croll, (Membership secretary) Croll Management, UK Patrick O'Beirne (Dublin 2003 co-ordinator) , Systems Modelling Ltd, Ireland Barry Pettifor (Member) PriceWaterhouseCoopers, London David Ward, (Member) KPMG, London Committee members Graham McDonald (Treasurer) HM Customs & Excise Pat Cleary (Secretary) University of Wales Institute Cardiff Jocelyn Paine (Member) University of Bristol Ray Butler (Member) ISACA Northern UK Leon Strous (Member) The Netherlands Bank Markus Clermont (Klagenfurt 2004 co-ordinator) Austria




Back to top