Net Present Value
A two minute video from Kent Beck about why big design up front (BDUF) is a bad idea presented using financial theory.
Why upfront design is a bad idea - Kent Beck
I have tried to present YAGNI like this but haven’t been able to express it quite this clearly. I usually use graphs but being able to use known financial theory would definitely help.
I have first hand experience where this has proven to be correct. Projects within the company that avoided BDUF were generally successful. Projects where a lot of time was invested in design were not.
In my experience this is super rare and I’m quite happy I got to experience this. I have often had discussions with people about the benefits of Agile processes but it’s always theoretical. No one is going run the same project twice in parallel to show that one method is better than the other. You can compare different companies approaches but there’s always wriggle room for the doubters, the snowflake defense.
I also worked for company where we deliberately avoided up front design and that company is more successful than it really has a right to be.
I once gave a presentation to a company about Agile and was derisively asked by the CEO if this was theory or experience. They then pronounced that their project would be run with Agile-Waterfall. It went as well as it sounds.