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.
References
- ^ Shedley, Ethan I. (April 1, 1971), "Big System Games", Datamation, vol. 17, no. 7, Technical Publishing Company, 1301 South Grove Ave., Barrington, Illinois 60010, pp. 22–25
External links
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