Don't Repeat Yourself
Introduction
DRY is a software design principle that aims to reduce the repetition of information of all kinds. The DRY principle states that every piece of knowledge should have a single, unambiguous representation within a system. This allows the system to be more maintainable and reduces the risk of introducing errors.
The idea behind the DRY principle is that if you have the same piece of information specified in multiple places, and you need to update it, you have to remember to update it in all those places. This can be error-prone and time-consuming. By ensuring that every piece of knowledge has a single representation, you can make updates in one place and be confident that the changes will be propagated throughout the system.
The DRY principle can be applied to many different aspects of software development, including code, documentation, and even project management. By following the DRY principle, you can create more maintainable and efficient systems.
Example
Here is an example of how the DRY principle can be applied:
Imagine you are writing a document that describes the process for onboarding new employees at your company. In this document, you need to provide the new employees with information about their benefits, including the details of their health insurance plan.
One way to do this would be to include the entire text of the health insurance plan in the onboarding document. However, this would make the document very long and difficult to read, and it would also make it difficult to update the document if the health insurance plan changes.
A better way to handle this would be to create a separate document that contains all of the information about the health insurance plan and then include a summary of the most important points in the onboarding document. This way, you can provide the new employees with the information they need without repeating the entire text of the health insurance plan. If the plan changes, you only need to update the separate document, rather than making changes to the onboarding document in multiple places.