Can of Worms

Definitions

1. An idiom for a topic or change likely to uncover many new complications once opened. In engineering culture it often describes legacy systems, migrations, or 'small fixes' that hide deeper structural issues.

   In plain English: A problem area that will create many more problems once you open it up.

   Example: "Changing that one auth assumption looked simple until someone pointed out it would open a whole can of worms around session invalidation and API compatibility."

Related Terms

• Long Marches
• Chip on Shoulder
• Code Base
• Code Complete
• Dead Project
• Deploy Friday
• Digital Security
• External Dependency
• Food for Thought
• Future Proof
• Ghost in the Machine