To quote from http://www.spreadsheetrisks.com/whatis.html :
Spreadsheet Engineering, a phrase coined by Professor Thomas A. Grossman of the University of San Francisco, adapts the lessons of software engineering to spreadsheets. Spreadsheet Engineering provides eight principles as a framework for organizing spreadsheet programming recommendations:
Principle 1: Best practices can have a large impact
Principle 2: Lifecycle Planning is important
Principle 3: A priori requirements specification is beneficial
Principle 4: Predicting future use is important
Principle 5: Design matters
Principle 6: Best practices are situation-dependent
Principle 7: Programming is a social, not an individual activity
Principle 8: Deployment of best practices is difficult and consumes resources
These eight principles guide our work, and equip us with an expanding research base with which to diversify our activities. The discipline of Software Engineering itself provides a vast repertoire of material with which to further guide us.
