Publications

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Submitted
Combining Smells and Fault Localization in Spreadsheets (in preparation), Abreu, Rui, Cunha Jácome, Fernandes João P., Martins Pedro, Perez Alexandre, and Saraiva João , (Submitted) paper.pdf
2016
Modeling the Impact of UAVs in Sustainability, Conejero, José, Brito Isabel, Moreira Ana, Cunha Jácome, and Araújo João , 5th International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for Sustainable Systems (RE4SuSy) @RE16, Beijing, China, (2016) 2016-modeling-impact.pdf
2014
Design and Implementation of Queries for Model-Driven Spreadsheets, Cunha, Jácome, Fernandes João Paulo, Mendes Jorge, Pereira Rui, and Saraiva João , Central European Functional Programming School - 5th Summer School, CEFP 2013, Revised Selected Papers, July, Heidelberg, (2014) Abstractdsl13_query.pdf

This paper presents a domain-specific querying language for model-driven spreadsheets. We briefly show the design of the language and present in detail its implementation, from the denormalization of data and translation of our user-friendly query language to a more efficient query, to the execution of the query using Google. To validate our work, we executed an empirical study, comparing QuerySheet with an alternative spreadsheet querying tool, which produced positive results.

Spreadsheet Engineering, Cunha, Jácome, Fernandes João Paulo, and Saraiva João , Central European Functional Programming School - 5th Summer School, CEFP 2013, Revised Selected Papers, July, Springer, Heidelberg, (2014) Abstractdsl13_notes.pdf

These tutorial notes present a methodology for spreadsheet engineering. First, we present data mining and database techniques to reason about spreadsheet data. These techniques are used to compute relationships between spreadsheet elements (cells/columns/rows). These relations are then used to infer a model defining the business logic of the spreadsheet. Such a model of a spreadsheet data is a visual domain specific language that we embed in a well-known spreadsheet system. The embedded model is the building block to define techniques for model-driven spreadsheet development, where advanced techniques are used to guarantee the model-instance synchronization. In this model-driven environment, any user data update as to follow the the model-instance conformance relation, thus, guiding spreadsheet users to introduce correct data. Data refinement techniques are used to synchronize models and instances after users update/evolve the model. These notes briefly describe our model-driven spreadsheet environment, the MDSheet environment, that implements the presented methodology. To evaluate both proposed techniques and the MDSheet tool, we have conducted, in laboratory sessions, an empirical study with the summer school participants. The results of this study are presented in these notes.

FaultySheet Detective: When Smells Meet Fault Localization, Abreu, Rui, Cunha Jácome, Fernandes João Paulo, Martins Pedro, Perez Alexandre, and Saraiva João , Proceedings of the 30th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, Washington, DC, USA, p.625–628, (2014) Abstracticsme14-td.pdf

This paper presents a tool, dubbed FaultySheet Detective, for aiding in spreadsheet fault localization, which combines the detection of bad smells with a generic spectrum-based fault localization algorithm.

Smelling Faults in Spreadsheets, Abreu, Rui, Cunha Jácome, Fernandes João Paulo, Martins Pedro, Perez Alexandre, and Saraiva João , Proceedings of the 30th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, Washington, DC, USA, p.111–120, (2014) Abstracticsme14.pdf

Despite being staggeringly error prone, spreadsheets are a highly flexible programming environment that is widely used in industry. In fact, spreadsheets are widely adopted for decision making, and decisions taken upon wrong (spreadsheet-based) assumptions may have serious economical impacts on businesses, among other consequences. This paper proposes a technique to automatically pinpoint potential faults in spreadsheets. It combines a catalog of spreadsheet smells that provide a first indication of a potential fault, with a generic spectrum-based fault localization strategy in order to improve (in terms of accuracy and false positive rate) on these initial results. Our technique has been implemented in a tool which helps users detecting faults. To validate the proposed technique, we consider a well-known and well-documented catalog of faulty spreadsheets. Our experiments yield two main results: we were able to distinguish between smells that can point to faulty cells from smells and those that are not capable of doing so; and we provide a technique capable of detecting a significant number of errors: two thirds of the cells labeled as faulty are in fact (documented) errors.

SSaaPP: SpreadSheets as a Programming Paradigm – Project's Final Report, Abreu, Rui, Alves Tiago, Belo Orlando, Campos José C., Cunha Jácome, Fernandes João Paulo, Martins Pedro, Mendes Jorge, Pacheco Hugo, Peixoto Christophe, Pereira Rui, Perez Alexandre, Ribeiro Hugo, Riboira André, Saraiva João, Silva André, Silva João Carlos, and Visser Joost , Number TR-HASLab:02:2014, (2014) Abstracttr_ssaapp.pdf

This technical report describes the research goals and results of the SpreadSheet as a Programming Paradigm research project. This was a project funded by Funda{\c c}ão para a Ciencia e Tecnologia – FCT: the Portuguese research foundation, under reference FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-010048, that ran from May 2010 till July 2013. This report includes the complete document reporting the results achieved during the project execution, which was submitted to FCT for evaluation on October 2013. It describes the goals of the project, and the different research tasks presenting the deliver- ables of each of them. It also presents the management and result dissemination work performed during the project's execution. The document includes also a self assess- ment of the achieved results, and a complete list of scientific publications describing the contributions of the project. Finally, this document includes the FCT evaluation report.

2013
Complexity Metrics for Spreadsheet Models, Cunha, Jácome, Fernandes João Paulo, Mendes Jorge, and Saraiva João , The 13th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, Volume 7972, p.459–474, (2013) Abstracticcsa-sq13.pdf

This paper proposes a set of metrics for the assessment of the complexity of models defining the business logic of spreadsheets. This set can be considered the first step in the direction of building a quality standard for spreadsheet models, that is still to be defined. The computation of concrete metric values has further been integrated under a well-established model-driven spreadsheet development environment, providing a framework for the analysis of spreadsheet models under spreadsheets themselves.

2011
Type-Safe Evolution of Spreadsheets, Cunha, Jácome, Visser Joost, Alves Tiago, and Saraiva João , Proceedings of the 14th International Conference Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE '11): Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software (ETAPS '11), Volume 6603, p.186–201, (2011) Abstractfase11.pdf

Spreadsheets are notoriously error-prone. To help avoid the introduction of errors when changing spreadsheets, models that capture the structure and interdependencies of spreadsheets at a conceptual level have been proposed. Thus, spreadsheet evolution can be made safe within the confines of a model. As in any other model/instance setting, evolution may not only require changes at the instance level but also at the model level. When model changes are required, the safety of instance evolution can not be guarded by the model alone. We have designed an appropriate representation of spreadsheet models, including the fundamental notions of formulæand references. For these models and their instances, we have designed coupled transformation rules that cover specific spreadsheet evolution steps, such as the insertion of columns in all occurrences of a repeated block of cells. Each model-level transformation rule is coupled with instance level migration rules from the source to the target model and vice versa. These coupled rules can be composed to create compound transformations at the model level inducing compound transformations at the instance level. This approach guarantees safe evolution of spreadsheets even when models change.

2010
Type-Safe Evolution of Spreadsheets, Cunha, Jácome, Visser Joost, Alves Tiago, and Saraiva João , Number DI-CCTC-10-09, (2010) Abstracttr_evolution.pdf

Spreadsheets are notoriously error-prone. To help avoid the introduction of errors when changing spreadsheets, models that capture the structure and inter-dependencies of spreadsheets at a conceptual level have been proposed. Thus, spreadsheet evolution can be made safe within the confines of a model. As in any other model/instance setting, evolution may not only require changes at the instance level but also at the model level. When model changes are required, the safety of instance evolution can not be guarded by the model alone. Coupled transformation of models and instances are supported by the 2LT platform and have been applied for transformation of algebraic datatypes, XML schemas, and relational database models. We have extended 2LT to spreadsheet evolution. We have designed an appropriate representation of spreadsheet models, including the fundamental notions of formulæ, references, and blocks of cells. For these models and their instances, we have designed coupled transformation rules that cover specific spreadsheet evolution steps, such as extraction of a block of cells into a separate sheet or insertion of columns in all occurrences of a repeated block of cells. Each model-level transformation rule is coupled with instance level migration rules from the source to the target model and vice versa. These coupled rules can be composed to create compound transformations at the model level that induce compound transformations at the instance level. With this approach, spreadsheet evolution can be made safe, even when model changes are involved.