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YAGNI or will you?

Posted in Main by tbeck on June 12th, 2006

An excellent post questioning whether the oft heard Agile zealot cry of YAGNI is always justified. Lidor doesn’t say YAGNI should be abandoned or that BDUF is the way to go. He says quite pliantly that although YAGNI makes sense on the surface, “reality is somewhat more complex”. Sometimes making the bet to invest in the future based on experience and the context you are in is a good bet and therefore the right thing to do. A balanced approach is what is needed.

2 Responses to 'YAGNI or will you?'

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  1. on June 12th, 2006 at 12:29 pm

    Good post. Michael Bolton (Toronto-based testing consultant) has a similar post here.

    A TDD-teacher that I worked with (I recentlyrecorded some of my TDD lessons) had this to say: “You must always think beyond the method you are trying to test.” He said that you can’t get tunnel vision or too caught up in the moment, or you may code yourself into a hole.

    -Jonathan

  2. tbeck said,

    on June 13th, 2006 at 11:49 am

    From Michael’s post:

    “The common element between Bad Traditionalist processes and Bad Agile Processes is that both want to remove that irritating thinking part”