Open Closed Principle vs YAGNI

Developers should learn and apply the Open Closed Principle to reduce the risk of introducing bugs when adding features, as it minimizes changes to stable, tested code meets developers should apply yagni to prevent over-engineering, reduce technical debt, and accelerate delivery by only building what is required now. Here's our take.

Open Closed Principle

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and apply the Open Closed Principle to reduce the risk of introducing bugs when adding features, as it minimizes changes to stable, tested code

Pros

• It is particularly useful in large-scale applications, frameworks, and libraries where frequent updates or extensions are expected, such as in plugin architectures or when building extensible APIs
• Related to: solid-principles, object-oriented-design

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

YAGNI

Developers should apply YAGNI to prevent over-engineering, reduce technical debt, and accelerate delivery by only building what is required now

Pros

• It is particularly useful in agile environments where requirements evolve frequently, such as in startups or iterative product development, as it minimizes wasted effort on unused features
• Related to: extreme-programming, agile-methodology

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Open Closed Principle is a concept while YAGNI is a methodology. We picked Open Closed Principle based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Open Closed Principle wins

Based on overall popularity. Open Closed Principle is more widely used, but YAGNI excels in its own space.