The Potential of Example Driven Modelling for Decision Support Spreadsheets

In this paper we present a novel alternative means of modelling Decision support spreadsheets called Example Driven Modelling. The concept and rationale of the approach is discussed and experimental evidence is presented illustrating the benefits of the methodology. We demonstrate the application of EDM on a real world spreadsheet and compare the performance of the EDM model with the traditional spreadsheet. Finally we discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of this approach and consider other areas of application in spreadsheet modelling.