Yak shaving is informal engineering slang for the chain of seemingly unrelated tasks you have to finish before you can do the thing you actually set out to do. To install a new firewall, you need a maintenance window; to get the window, you need a change ticket; to raise the ticket, you need an account in the change system; and so on, until you find yourself, figuratively, shaving a yak. The term is usually told with a grin, but it names a real reason IT projects run late and over budget.
At a glance
- Yak shaving describes a recursive chain of prerequisite tasks standing between you and the real goal.
- Each step can be legitimate on its own; the problem is how many there are and that nobody planned for them.
- Common causes include missing access, unclear ownership, undocumented systems, approvals and old dependencies.
- For buyers, it shows up as delays, change orders and disputes over what was in scope.
- Discovery, explicit assumptions in the statement of work and early escalation help keep it in check.
What problem it solves
Yak shaving is a problem to recognize rather than a tool, and the term is useful because it gives teams a shared name for it. When an engineer says “I’m yak shaving,” they mean the visible goal hasn’t moved because they are clearing something underneath it. Naming that helps managers and customers see where the time is going and decide, deliberately, whether the chain is worth finishing, worth paying someone else to clear or a sign the plan needs to change.
For buyers, the useful question is why the yaks were there in the first place. Many come from conditions that existed before the project started: credentials nobody can find, systems without documentation, accumulated technology debt, unclear owners and approval steps nobody mentioned during the sales process.
How it works
A typical chain on an IT project might look like this. A provider is hired to move a branch office to a new SD-WAN service. Before the device can go in, they need the current router’s configuration. The router’s admin password is unknown, so someone has to recover it. Recovery needs console access, which needs a site visit, which needs building access and an escort. Meanwhile, the new circuit can’t be activated until the landlord approves a riser. None of these tasks is the project, but each one blocks it.
Common sources of yaks:
- Access and accounts. Admin credentials, portal logins, VPN access, badges and site escorts.
- Unknown current state. Undocumented configurations, unlabeled cabling and systems nobody owns.
- Dependencies on old systems. Software too old to upgrade directly, or an integration that has to be rebuilt first.
- Approvals and process. Change boards, security reviews, purchase orders and landlord or carrier approvals. Good IT change management is worth having, but each step adds lead time.
- Tooling. Automation and DevOps work often starts with building the pipeline, inventory or test environment before the first useful change.
When it matters for buyers
- Scoping. Fixed-price projects are vulnerable when the statement of work assumes a clean starting point. List known prerequisites, who owns each one and what happens if one takes longer than expected.
- Discovery. A paid discovery phase, assessment or proof of concept can surface many yaks before you commit to a full timeline and price.
- Customer responsibilities. Many delays come from tasks only the customer can do, such as granting access, approving changes or chasing a landlord. Name them in the SOW with target dates.
- Change orders. Agree in advance how unplanned prerequisite work is raised, priced and approved, so it isn’t absorbed silently or billed by surprise.
- Inherited environments. After an acquisition or a staff change, expect more yaks. See our managed network services page for help scoping network projects with a provider.
Questions to ask vendors
- What prerequisites does this project assume, and which of them are our responsibility?
- What discovery will you do before committing to a timeline, and is it priced separately?
- Which tasks have caused delays on similar projects for other customers?
- How will you tell us when prerequisite work is blocking progress, and how quickly?
- How are change orders for unplanned prerequisite work raised and approved?
- What happens to the schedule and price if access, approvals or information from our side arrive late?
How it differs from technology debt
Technology debt is the accumulated cost and risk of old systems, shortcuts and postponed upgrades. Yak shaving is the experience of working through a chain of prerequisites to get something done. The two are closely linked: technology debt is a common source of yaks, because old, undocumented or unsupported systems have to be fixed or understood before new work can proceed. But yak shaving can happen in a well-run environment too, through approvals, access requests and tooling setup, and paying down technology debt is itself a project that can involve plenty of yak shaving.