Pull means a lot of things to a lot of people:
Pull = Pursuing Passion
Pull = Putting Customers First
Pull = Producing Based on Demand
These definitions of pull have something in common; they all contain a strong element of observation, orientation, decision, and action – the OODA loop. As the pace of business increases and unexpected events become common,
pull becomes like an increasingly attractive alternative to push.
The problem is, pull doesn’t work without preparation. Pull requires an environment that sends the correct signals, methods to rapidly detect the right patterns, and people who have the skills and training to make the right decisions. So the real challenge of pull is creating the environment, devising the patterns, and developing the people that ensure the right decisions are made and rapidly carried out, no matter what situation presents itself.'
Keywords: Pull, Push, Passion, OODA, Customer, Demand, Uncertainty
Target Audience: Team leads and managers who influence work environments.
Biography: Mary Poppendieck
Mary Poppendieck started her career as a process control programmer, moved on to manage the IT department of a manufacturing plant, and then ended up in product development, where she was both a product champion and department manager.
Mary considered retirement 1998, but instead found herself managing a government software project where she first encountered the word “waterfall.” When Mary compared her experience in successful software and product development to the prevailing opinions about how to manage software projects, she decided the time had come for a new paradigm. She wrote the award-winning book Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit in 2003 to explain how the lean principles from manufacturing offer a better approach to software development.
Over the past six years, Mary has found retirement elusive as she lectures and teaches classes with her husband Tom. Based on their on-going learning, they wrote a second book, Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash in 2006. A popular writer and speaker, Mary continues to bring fresh perspectives to the world of software development.
Software Passion: Putting Passion back into Programming