GRIDS/365FYI

What’s new · Guided evaluation

Evaluate When a Spreadsheet Should Become a Shared Model

A new guided journey and readiness assessment help teams recognize when an expert-built workbook has become shared infrastructure—and evaluate the transition without pretending every spreadsheet should move.

August 25, 20262 minute readguided evaluation
Release
FYI-2026-08-25-01
Availability
Public

What became possible

Teams can now follow one approachable path from a familiar workbook problem to a bounded evaluation of shared-model readiness.

The journey uses financial forecasting, supply planning, and governed reporting to show when a private file begins behaving like organizational infrastructure. A side-by-side architecture comparison then keeps the business rule constant while showing the difference between five separate implementations and five permitted views of one governed model.

Who this helps

  • Domain experts whose models are depended on beyond their immediate team
  • Finance and planning leaders reconciling several versions of one operating assumption
  • Operations teams translating one change across sheets, schedules, and reports
  • Technology leaders evaluating where shared logic is more useful than another application rewrite

What changed in the evaluation workflow

The new path connects four activities that previously lived apart:

  1. Recognize the threshold where a workbook has become shared infrastructure.
  2. Inspect three fictional but concrete operating scenarios.
  3. Compare private implementations with governed surfaces of one shared model.
  4. Use a printable readiness assessment to define scope, authority, evidence, and acceptance criteria.

Evidence and limitations

The scenarios and comparison are authored illustrations. They do not show a customer deployment, claim arbitrary workbook conversion, or imply that parity proves an existing workbook correct. Macros, external links, source governance, policy, permissions, acceptance criteria, and operating ownership still require customer-controlled review.

Available now

Related films, scenarios, and next steps

Watch the model in context

Related films

0:30From Spreadsheet to Shared ModelA familiar spreadsheet gives experts freedom to build, but separate files leave every organization maintaining its own version of the rules.0:44Excel Is the ProofExcel's reach shows how durable the grid interface can be, while AI makes the need for a shared calculation system more urgent.1:12How a Grid Becomes a SystemSee a blank grid become a working model, add specialized tools, and power sheets, maps, charts, documents, and apps from the same logic.

Choose the next move

Test the claim with a different kind of evidence.

For domain expertsApply the model to familiar workFollow a bounded use case from a changed fact through evidence, calculation, review, and authorized action.See the modelFrom Spreadsheet to Shared ModelA familiar spreadsheet gives experts freedom to build, but separate files leave every organization maintaining its own version of the rules.For technical evaluatorsFollow the concept into Grid DevelopersContinue into the linked Grid Developers guide for the exact behavior, prerequisites, and limits used by this explanation.

Continue exploring

Follow the next question.

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