YAGNI — You ain’t gonna need it

YAGNI is a key principle of extreme programming.

But what is it about, and do you really need it?

What does it state?

The statement YAGNI sets is pretty simple:

Only implement things when you really need them, not when you think or foresee that you might need them in the future!

You could view YAGNI as an advocate for just-in-time manufacturing. Manufacturing being writing code and delivering features in this case.

Only if someone really requests a feature to exist, you get to work and create it. Otherwise, you stay the lazy being you are! 😉

Why is it important?

Every line of code not written is time and thus money saved.

But it is even more!

It is:

• Less code to maintain
• Less code to test
• Less code to refactor when things change
• More time for more important features
• More time for documentation

And it also is:

• Time saved on compilation / transpilation
• Time saved on tests run
• Resources saved at build time /…