Small matter of programming

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Small Matter of Programming (SMOP) was among the "games" described in an article written pseudonymously ^[1] as paralleling the Games People Play identified by Dr. Eric Berne in the field of self-help psychology. The game essentially consists of proposing seemingly simple adjustments to a design, and leaving to someone else the problem of fitting the unexpected consequences into the schedule.

When used in computer science. a SMOP is the smallest unit of software engineering effort which can be allocated at the onset of a project. A SMOP has the curious property that its size increases exponentially as the project progresses. It is not uncommon for a SMOP to grow to man-decades. There is anecdotal evidence of SMOPs encompassing man-centuries.

Note that SMOPs are logarithmic in nature. Each additional SMOP adds another order of magnitude onto calendar time.

The implication of using it is either

• to remind one's colleagues that every design change seems like a small matter of programming, until implementation starts, or
• to reassert by irony one's awareness of the danger of underestimating required effort.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Simple Matter of Programming in the Jargon File