16 Practical Spreadsheet Risk Modeling for Management
• Do not begin by entering data in a blank spreadsheet. Most prob-
lems have some input data (e.g., a set of prices, a list of charac-
teristics, etc.) that can readily be placed in a spreadsheet. Novice
modelers struggle for a place to begin and thus are tempted to enter
these data, knowing that they will use them later on. However, the
way in which the data are entered should be governed by the logi-
cal structure of the problem, rather than by the order in which the
numbers are encountered. Once the data are entered in the spread-
sheet, users are then forced to work around the (arbitrary) order in
which they were entered. It is always better to have a logical struc-
t