 <p>Users can totally handle grids. It's more intuitive than an edit button and a detail form.</p> <p>However, is this application a multiple user application? Could the underlying data be changed by more than one user at a time? If so, then you have some concurrency design decisions to make, and sometimes, that can be easier to solve when users can only edit one row at a time.</p> <p>It smells a little fishy though, and I suspect your programmer is making convenient excuses because it's easier for him to design read-only grids in a master / detail pattern.</p> <p>Stick with your gut instinct. :)</p>