JargonFile/entries/one-banana problem.txt

one-banana problem

n. At mainframe shops, where the computers have operators for routine
administrivia, the programmers and hardware people tend to look down on the
operators and claim that a trained monkey could do their job. It is
frequently observed that the incentives that would be offered said monkeys
can be used as a scale to describe the difficulty of a task. A one-banana
problem is simple; hence, It's only a one-banana job at the most; what's
taking them so long? At IBM, folklore divides the world into one-, two-, and
three-banana problems. Other cultures have different hierarchies and may
divide them more finely; at ICL, for example, five grapes (a bunch) equals a
banana. Their upper limit for the in-house sysapes is said to be two
bananas and three grapes (another source claims it's three bananas and one
grape, but observes However, this is subject to local variations, cosmic
rays and ISO ). At a complication level any higher than that, one asks the
manufacturers to send someone around to check things. See also
Infinite-Monkey Theorem.