“Don’t repeat yourself” (DRY) and “Keep it simple stupid” (KISS) are well known rules in software development and maybe particularly so in Ruby on Rails circles. Both rules focus on simplicity; we avoid repeating ourselves by adding features once and reusing them when a similar need pops up and we keep things simple by dealing with what is needed today and not what might be needed tomorrow.
These concepts tie in tightly with Agile practices where software (and many other things) are developed in cycles always focusing on what brings most value at the moment. It doesn’t make sense to invest time and money in advanced features or new layouts before you have a fully functioning application that can actually start to grow your business.
Apart from adhering to these principles ourselves in our work, we try to communicate them and let them seep into the software design phases we do together with our clients. We believe that the “keep it simple” rule is particularly important in the beginning of a project and it helps to have it in the back of your mind when ideas and creativity are flying around the conference table and customers and developers alike are excited about everything that could potentially be made instead of what should.
What it translates to for your business is flexibility and value. Flexibility because we, the Intesys Ruby on Rails team, try our hardest to keep your applications as simple and clean as possible, which allows us to respond quickly to the changes your business is going through at any given moment. Value, because you pay for what brings you closer to your objectives and not for us to re-invent the wheel or maintaining old, monolithic, and inflexible systems.
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