NOyet

NOyet is a hypothetical concept and platform aimed at organizing and tracking decisions or ideas that are intentionally deferred rather than rejected or acted upon immediately. It provides a lightweight mechanism for capturing context, rationale, and conditions that could later trigger review or escalation, thereby reducing premature commitments.

The name combines Not Yet, signaling deferral, and is sometimes stylized as NOyet in product documentation. The approach emphasizes explicit criteria for action and a transparent audit trail of why a decision was postponed.

NOyet originated in software product management and organizational governance discussions in the late 2010s. Early practice involved tagging items with a deferred status and recording the factors preventing immediate action. A formal reference implementation emerged as open‑source tooling and guidelines in the early 2020s.

Core features commonly include a lightweight data model for items, with fields such as title, summary, rationale, stakeholders, deferral trigger, and re-evaluation date. Items can be linked to related tasks, risk assessments, and decision logs. The system supports reminders, version history, and integration with issue trackers.

Usage typically follows capturing an idea or decision in the Not Yet state, documenting context and criteria for future review, assigning ownership, and setting a re-evaluation time. When triggers are met, the item can be promoted to active work or archived; if not, it remains deferred.

Reception is mixed. Proponents credit the approach with reducing rushed commitments and clarifying governance; critics warn that unresolved items can accumulate without disciplined review. See also Notion, backlog, decision log.