What component helps avoid duplication of work in application development?

The design system is a critical component in application development that helps avoid duplication of work by providing a standardized set of design patterns, components, and guidelines. This ensures that developers and designers can reuse established elements rather than creating new ones from scratch for each project or feature. By having a consistent library of reusable components, teams are able to maintain uniformity across the application, accelerate development time, and enhance collaboration, as all team members have access to the same resources and standards.

The design system also promotes best practices in terms of user interface and user experience, leading to better overall quality and consistency across the application. This reduces the risk of inconsistencies and errors that may arise from creating components independently.

Other options, such as a document management system, integration layer, and source control system, while valuable in their respective roles, do not specifically address the issue of avoiding duplication in the design and implementation of application components. The document management system focuses more on the organization and retrieval of documents, the integration layer handles communication between different systems, and the source control system manages changes to source code. While these components play important roles in the development process, they do not inherently provide the structure and reuse benefits that a design system offers.