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oh dennis!
"But isn't the real issue that professional accountants don't have the training to perform developer tasks, however much a project is broken down? What about documentation?"
Spreadsheets are useful but risky, and you are correct in your assertion that accountants are not developers - but how on earth will documentation help them in spotting the errors they have created? As I recall, accountants find it difficult enough to document the basics of client systems! Understanding spreadsheet risks, and learning some basic design principles sounds like a much more effective route, and surely more preferable to not using them at all?
But isn't the real issue
That professional accountants don't have the training to perform developer tasks, however much a project is broken down? What about documentation?
What about documentation?
The key is creating "just enough" documentation. That's a piece-of-string that depends on who other than the author is going to use and modify the spreadsheet, and the relative skill levels expected.
I deal with this in my book 'Spreadsheet Check and Control'. Here is an excerpt:
"Keep documentation close to where it used so that it can be updated along with what it refers to. Otherwise, neglected documentation or cell comments may become actually misleading. Section 1.1.2 on page 11 shows how to use cell comments to store information that may be needed by the user at the time of data entry.
Place in a separate Instructions worksheet the user instructions and explanatory notes on calculations and dependencies on external data sources. "