link: Design Principles

You Ain’t Gonna Need It

The YAGNI principle is a reminder to developers to not add functionality until it is necessary, promoting a focus on immediate requirements rather than speculative features. It stems from Extreme Programming and is aimed at reducing time wasted on features that might not be used.

Key Principles

• Avoid Over-Engineering: Only implement things you actually need, not what you foresee you might need.
• Increase Productivity: Focuses development efforts on requirements that are certain, improving productivity and efficiency.
• Reduce Complexity: Limits the addition of unnecessary complexity which can make maintenance harder and introduce more bugs.

Caution

Following YAGNI strictly without flexibility can sometimes delay necessary Refactoring or long-term planning, potentially leading to technical debt if not managed carefully.

YAGNI helps streamline development processes by ensuring that every element and feature has a justified need, which in turn keeps the codebase clean and maintainable.