I'm Brendan Hyland. I help regulated facilities transform their software, spreadsheets, workflows and documents from time-consuming, deviation-invoking, regulatory burdens, to the competitive advantage they were meant to be. Join me every week as we take a few minutes to explore, design, test and improve the critical systems we use in our facilities.
Excel Hazard #13: The Wayward Cell Block
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Hazard Name: The Wayward Cell Block Description: An unintentional change in a block of formulas caused by accidental cut-n-paste, drag-n-drop, fill handle functions, or flash fill. Often results in a similar looking formula, but with the cell references being offset by one or more rows or columns. Detection: When resulting in an inconsistent formula in a row or block, these are usually flagged by a warning. They may also cause a #REF! error if at the ends of a row or column. Warning: Under certain conditions a block of errant cell formulas can be hidden and difficult to track down. Look for clues like repeating numbers, sudden changes in magnitude, or inconsistent formatting. If suspected, use tools such as Show Formulas (Ctrl+`) and Trace precedents/dependents (Ctrl+[ and Ctrl+] to navigate). Mitigation: Lock formula cells and protect worksheets. Until next time, thanks for reading! – Brendan p.s. Enjoy this message? Read more at the Hyland Quality Systems website. |
The Daily HaiQu
I'm Brendan Hyland. I help regulated facilities transform their software, spreadsheets, workflows and documents from time-consuming, deviation-invoking, regulatory burdens, to the competitive advantage they were meant to be. Join me every week as we take a few minutes to explore, design, test and improve the critical systems we use in our facilities.
I’ve seen several quality leaders complain this week about their disappointment with generative AI - they’re not getting the results they expected. And I understand why - context is king! If you just ask AI to write a procedure or generate a quality document, you’ll get generic, mediocre output. Without enough context, AI can only produce something generic based on its training data. But how do you give it that context? By the time you’ve gone back and forth trying to “engineer the prompt” to...
I'm excited to be presenting at the 2025 SQA Annual Meeting next week - "Is it the Right Tool for the Job? How QA and Regulatory Professionals can Guide Software Decisions in Regulated Environments" As our familiar software tools become more feature-laden and generalized, it's critical to ensure that software meets clear use cases and basic user requirements. And with generative AI being shoehorned into every platform, defining if and how software is appropriate for the intended use has never...
Last time we left off with a cliff-hanger of a question: How do you prove you're you when signing a document? There are several ways I've seen that the 3rd party providers prove that it's you who's signed the document: You clicked a link from an email. You paid for the service with a credit card. You provided some government issued photo ID. Someone, such as a notorized public or your HR department, has verified it's you in person. Obviously these are very different levels of assurance. Then...