Replacing the spreadsheet that runs your business
For the workbook that started as a list and is now the system of record. Read before anyone says the word 'migration'.
- 01
Find out what the spreadsheet is actually for.
It is usually three systems in a trenchcoat: a pipeline, a scheduling board and a billing log. Replacing it with one tool that only does the first is how a migration gets abandoned in month two.
- 02
Identify the person who maintains it.
There is always one. They know every convention, every colour code and every row that must not be sorted. Their knowledge is the specification, and if they are not in the project they are the reason it fails.
- 03
Write down the conventions nobody documented.
in the PDF
- 04
Decide what happens to the history.
in the PDF
- 05
Count how many copies exist.
in the PDF
- 06
Name what the spreadsheet does well.
in the PDF
- 07
Decide who is allowed to see what, before the build.
in the PDF
- 08
Plan the fortnight where both run in parallel.
in the PDF
6 more checks in the PDF
The complete checklist — every check with the reasoning under it, the closing note, and the other 12 documents — comes as one PDF.