Excel spreadsheet to record tests - worlds most expensive spreadsheet

[IT Minion]

I find it hard to understand why they didnt use a database to do it.

surely covid test data cant require many fields.

There's already a database for this information, the NHS labs all have pipelines set up to push data into it. For the lighthouse labs they didn't have the pipelines and decided to set up a parallel system to get the data in.

That parallel system, the one that failed, seems to have used Excel as part of the process used to get the data into the right format for inserting it into the main database. Or just as a 'database' of its own.

As for the data? I'd guess it has a lot of metadata. Not much for a database, but plenty when a human is reading it.

But this is a lot of guesswork based on hints and details in reports, so I might be wrong.

 

[Notch7]

That parallel system, the one that failed, seems to have used Excel as part of the process used to get the data into the right format for inserting it into the main database. Or just as a 'database' of its own.

Ah -sounds like an IT dept got pressurised to knock something up quick, no doubt they will get blamed for it

 

[JohnD]

I find it hard to understand why they didnt use a database to do it.

surely covid test data cant require many fields.

I don't suppose Cummings trusts in-house professionals. Anybody who's been in the job a while, and has a competent management structure and development process, wouldn't let that sort of mistake go into production.

they probably paid some consultancy company that donates to the Tory party

and one of their ignorant non-professionals with a new suit who only knows MS Office knocked up a shiny new spreadsheet. I wonder what the daily charge-out rate is now, for an off-the-shelf "consultant?" Two or three thou?

I'm told that, on examination, most of the spreadsheets used in business and governments have errors on them.

Some may not matter much. Others....

 

[JohnD]

Serco also deny responsibility for it.

"NHS Test and Trace is an outsourced government service in England, established in 2020 to track and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. It is run by the National Institute for Health Protection; the service and the institute are both headed by Baroness Dido Harding."

Who can tell me, what, among the qualifications, experience, skills and family connections of the good Baroness led to her beating all other applicants and landing the job?

 

[JohnD]

here's a clue:

"Diana Mary "Dido" Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe (born 9 November 1967)[2] is a British Conservative Party businesswoman serving as chairwoman of NHS Improvement since 2017, and head of the NHS Test and Trace programme and acting Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection since 2020.

She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to resign after a cyber attack revealed the details of 4 million customers. A member of the Conservative Party, Harding is married to Conservative Party Member of Parliament John Penrose and is a friend of former Prime Minister David Cameron. Harding was appointed as a Member of the House of Lords by Cameron in 2014. She holds a board position at the Jockey Club, which is responsible for several major horse-racing events including the Cheltenham Festival."

"She sits in the House of Lords as a member of the Conservative Party and is married to Conservative Party Member of Parliament John Penrose.[6] During questioning by the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons, Harding said she held the interim leadership while a full application process was carried out.[7]"

 

[JohnD]

Who built it?

"The day after the release of the NHS England and Wales COVID-19 contact tracing app, Ian Bolland spoke to Wolfgang Emmerich, CEO, Zühlke Engineering, the developer behind the app.

"saying the app was “arguably the best in the world,” something which he says he does not say lightly. He outlined the app has the largest number of features compared those used in countries, and points towards the app’s ‘Me features’ that are targeted to individuals, allowing them to provide feedback about their situation surrounding the virus."
https://www.med-technews.com/features/nhs-test-and-trace-the-developers-behind-the-app/

Best in the world, eh? That's good to know.

 

[IT Minion]

Different system to the Covid-19 app. This will be sitting on a server* on PHEs estate, probably. I don't know how PHE does its' IT functions, but I'd guess they've got an in house IT team for business as usual and small changes, possibly outsourced but probably not, and rent in consultants for big bits of work.

*Possibly also known as the laptop that sits under Dave's desk. Please don't unplug it.

 

[empip]

Excel is not critically flawed - is it ?
FFS if you are about to utilise a tool you should check it's limitations.
Then rigorously test the set up. Boeing know a bit about this mire.
Sadly, the software is fine when used within it's limits, it is the developers who are squarely to blame imho.

I guess if you want a custom piece of software - it would take time and cost - mind you, when that went wrong there may not be a culprit to kick.
Open workbooks Limited by available memory and system resources

Total number of rows and columns on a worksheet 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns
Oh, well there - try MS - Here you go:-
Excel specifications and limits
Pretty easy to find, as I am sure will be the limitations, if any, of importing data in .CSV format.

Bad workmen blame their tools.

-0-

 

[ellal]

Bad workmen blame their tools.

Or not upgrading them when needed...

Apparently the problem is to do with an old system working on xls documents not being able to open xlsx documents...

Mind you, the UK is not alone in such cock-ups...

The Brandenburg airport in Berlin is still not open, and since it's been so long in completion they had to strip out the 'state of the art' software system - windows XP

 

[IT Minion]

No one is still using Excel 2003,and even that has a patch to let it use 2007 formal xslx. That some companies are still using xls files is absurd. There's no good reason other than laziness amongst users and IT departments.

 

[Diver Fred]

No one is still using Excel 2003,and even that has a patch to let it use 2007 formal xslx. That some companies are still using xls files is absurd. There's no good reason other than laziness amongst users and IT departments.

Cost?

That unfriendly b****y 'Ribbon'

 

[IT Minion]

Cost?

That unfriendly b****y 'Ribbon'

They rolled that back. Now the ribbon is just a top menu bar with icons instead of acres of text.

For home users 2003 was fine and you can still get by on it. For corporate use it's painful. Naff security, limited integration, huge file sizes and awkward for use with anything else. No co-authoring either which is fantastic for anyone who is trying to do a document that needs other people's input.

 

[ellal]

No one is still using Excel 2003,and even that has a patch to let it use 2007 formal xslx. That some companies are still using xls files is absurd. There's no good reason other than laziness amongst users and IT departments.

Better have a word with some government departments then...

And our local council rejects xslx due to a 'failed IT upgrade'!

 

[EddieM]

They rolled that back. Now the ribbon is just a top menu bar with icons instead of acres of text.

For home users 2003 was fine and you can still get by on it. For corporate use it's painful. Naff security, limited integration, huge file sizes and awkward for use with anything else. No co-authoring either which is fantastic for anyone who is trying to do a document that needs other people's input.

Excel on O365 is not without it's issues.

 

[Notch7]

I use excel 2010, I refuse to move to a subscription based model.

I'm tempted to try libre office, although the formatting options on excel are comprehensive and easy to use.

Having built an excel spreadsheet to calculate lengths and angles of timber roof lanterns, I can fully understand how quickly it goes teats up.

By entering the length, width and pitch of a roof lantern the spreadsheet workout the lengths and angles of the ridge, hips, common rafter and jack rafters as well as the glass sizes.

But by god it's hard finding an error, it's painful trawling through each cell, checking formulas and cell references.