calculation Management

[Gearhead]

Hi
Has any one pursued the new Calculation Management method and tools that MathSoft is offreing? What does everyone think is this the wave of the future?

 

[IRstuff]

Some of it is interesting, e.g., the provenance provision, so that you can trace the source of certain numbers or calculations


TTFN

 

[Gearhead]

What about the part that states spreadsheets are full of errors? Is this a ligitimate claim? Why do engineers keep reinventing and re writing programs for tasks that have been done before shouldn't they be capturing this knowledge and reusing others knowledge via software?

 

[IRstuff]

I don't know about "full of errors." The Rome Air Development Center RADC used to have a model for elimination of software errors, which depended on processor throughput and software utilization. Basically, the more often the software is exercised, the more likely that errors are detected and corrected.

Calculations are of a similar vein, the more often and varied the usage, the more likely that errors are detected and corrected.

So, Mathsoft's proposition is partially correct. If you use standardized calculations, the errors may be more readily detected and corrected. However, if no one exercises non-obvious errors, they may remain hidden.

That presumes that your organization makes the same calculations, over and over, again. That may not be true; in which case, the benefits are not so readily reaped.

TTFN