Creating a form: what to think about?

When designing a company form, several requirements must be met:

• create a form that fulfils the business need (managing the information required for the business purpose),
• with satisfactory ergonomics for the user, while respecting the client's technical constraints (DTD or schema, etc.),
• Finally, when designing several forms, harmonise the different forms to avoid having a processing chain per form.

The sticking point in creating an Excel form

The common sticking point is the specification of forms with users:

• If a user is asked to describe a form, the format is generally unworkable by IT and a source of error,
  if IT is responsible for specifying the form on the basis of the business need, the user's logic for entering the information is completely missed.
• The solution is therefore to set up a pivotal format that allows dialogue between IT and users, a simple Excel file being a good way to describe a form.

Steps to create an Excel form

• creation of an Excel template which restricts the input possibilities in terms of field types, value types and allows lists to be described in a single format,
• filling in this Excel in workshop with the users,
• validation of this Excel which is used as a specification of the form,
• development of the form described by this Excel,
• possible updates to the specification Excel following feedback from users on the form.

The advantages of an Excel form

There are many advantages:

• the user participating in the creation of the form, he/she joins the project,
• the Excel format is perfectly understandable by an IT development team,
• This Excel format can be used as a reference for work on forms (mapping of existing data, product transformations, etc.).
• Moreover, if the Excel has been well designed and fairly restrictive, it is often even possible to automate part of the form creation via a generator (at least the lists!).

The disadvantages of an Excel form

The main disadvantage is that you have to keep this Excel file up to date if the form changes, so that the two are always synchronised.