TOWARD A LOGICAL PHYSICAL THEORY OF SPREADSHEET MODELING

In spite of the increasing sophistication and power of commercial spre adsheet packages, we still lack a formal theory of a methodology to su pport the construction and maintenance of spreadsheet models. Using a dual logical/physical perspective, we identify four principal componen ts that characterize any spreadsheet model: schema, data, editorial, a nd binding. We present a factoring algorithm for identifying and extra cting these components from conventional spreadsheets with minimal use r intervention, and a synthesis algorithm that assists users in the co nstruction of executable spreadsheets from reusable model components. This approach opens new possibilities for applying object-oriented and model management techniques to support the construction, sharing, and reuse of spreadsheet models in organizations. Importantly, our approa ch to model management and the Windows-based prototype that we have de veloped are designed to coexist with, rather than replace, traditional spreadsheet programs. In other words, the users are not required to l earn a new modeling language; instead, their logical models and data s ets are extracted from their spreadsheets transparently, as a side-eff ect of using standard spreadsheet programs.