Tips for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Other Applications
10-Day Test
At one time or another, we've all had to pick up a project from someone else. Maybe they left the company or went on vacation ... in any case, they aren't around to answer your questions. Despite repeated assurances that everyone is "taken care of", inevitably we have to go and dig into a piece of analysis only to find that the original author hasn't left an audit trail. No notes explaining where the source data came from, no notes documenting what key assumptions were made and who approved them, no documentation explaining why the analysis was structured the way it was. After a big sigh, you spend the rest of the day undoing and redoing someone else's work.
As a general practice, all work should be formatted so that the analysis can be revised by someone else without explanation. The litmus test is the question, "If someone has to update my analysis 10 days after I finished. . . ."
Could they find it? You should:
- Label each sheet with the name of the file and worksheet
- Identify the preparer and project code in case there are questions
Would they understand it? You should:
- Logically and transparently structure the analysis
- Document all sources
- Identify assumptions and lay out reasoning behind methodology
- Use hyperlinks to facilitate navigation (Edit, Paste as Hyperlink)
Would it be the latest version? You should:
- Use the properties function
- Format the worksheet with a time and date stamp
Would they be able to edit it easily? You should:
- Define names for major data sets and variables
- Avoid trying to cram the entire calculation into one cell
If we've documented our work properly, then we should be able to take vacation in confidence, knowing full well that anyone can pick up our analysis, follow our trail of logic, and see why we made the decisions and assumptions we did, and pick up where we left off.
Notes
| Last updated | 9/2/07 |
| Application Version | Excel, not version specific |
| Author | Michael Kan |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Related Tips | None |