Software Engineering for End-User Programmers

It is estimated that by 2005, there will be 55 million end-user programmers compared to 2.75 million professional programmers. Even though end-user programs have the same reliability problems, software engineering research has largely ignored the end-user community. Because end users are different from professional programmers in motivation, background, and interests, the end-user community cannot be served by repacking tools and techniques developed for professional programmers. This article describes our work in developing software engineering devices for spreadsheet developers, one of the largest classes of end-user programmers. Software engineering research has focused on aiding programmers throughout the software development and maintenance process. However, this focus has been on professional programmers and has largely ignored the sizeable end-user programmer community. It is predicted that by 2005 in the United States alone there will be 55 million enduse