I was in a meeting yesterday where a seasoned but non-technical person was surprised that the project at hand involved a substantial amount of re-coding. "I thought it was just..." the sentence began, which then continued (in my mind) as "completely re-thinking $concept and normalizing $concept data across 38 new tables instead of the current 5" but sounded like "switching around a few tables" to everyone else.
I've worked with lots of non-technical folks over the years, some good, many bad, and this person is one of the good ones, so I found it amusing rather than irksome. but, for the record...
there is no such thing as "it's just..." in software engineering anymore. at least not for mature applications with an established userbase where real money is involved.
Another variation on this is "Can't we just...". Whenever I hear that, I know trouble's a comin' and it is time to head for them thar hills
"It's just a logo modification, plus some color tweaks."
"It's just a little course change in our business strategy."
"It's only small update to our target markets."
