Yak Shaving - What is it and why you probably do it!

Yak Shaving - What is it and why you probably do it!

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2 min read

Before I Start

You can find the podcast episode around this topic below!

Introduction

I shall begin with a quick story of something I went through this past week.

I had a task to create analytics events for a few new key features that we wanted to track usage of - as part of our measurements of how successful that new feature was in the short term.

A few hours later - I found myself taking a look at half our integration tests after a brief change to our login page.

How did this happen?

What is Yak Shaving?

Yak shaving is when your current goal is overridden by multiple recursive sub goals that aren't absolutely necessary - but minor enough that you should just handle it now while you're there. After some time - this leads to the original goal not being met and all is not well.

You can find my absolute favorite visual aid for this here!

So while developing, it can be easy to get distracted with little "nice-to-have's" that are equally important as they are distracting.

How to avoid Shaving Yaks

Honestly - I don't think it's a bad idea. If you have the time for it - go for it. But there is a better method of how then what was visualized above.

Follow this rule of thumb and your yaks should all be shaved in no time:

  1. If you find a yak that needs shaving: write it down somewhere and come back to it when you're done what you are doing.

And that is it. Do this - and you should see much success! (and some shaved yaks along the way!)

Have a good one! You can reach me at or workingunittests.com