SMOP

SMOP is an acronym for Small Matter of Programming .

SMOP was among the games described, in a magazine article entitled Big-System Games Programmers Play , as parallelling 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.

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.