---
name: pull-planning-session
description: Prepare, facilitate and digitise a pull planning (phase scheduling) session of the Last Planner(R) System - define the milestone and its conditions of satisfaction, work backwards with the trades' sticky notes, find handoffs and their requirements, identify constraints, place buffers and turn the wall into a phase schedule and a constraint log. Use when the user plans a phase or milestone with trade partners, mentions "pull session", "planificación pull", "sesión de jalar", "planeación colaborativa", phase scheduling, or wants to convert photos of a sticky-note wall into a schedule.
---

# Pull planning session

## Inputs
- The milestone (what must be true, by when) and its conditions of satisfaction from the customer of that milestone.
- The participants: one person per trade who can commit for their company (the "last planners").
- After the session: photos of the wall or a transcription of the sticky notes (task, trade, duration, location, what is needed from whom).

## Procedure
### Before
1. Write the milestone statement and the conditions of satisfaction with the user: measurable, agreed with the next customer (e.g. "Level 4 ready for drywall: MEP rough-in inspected, framing complete, area clean").
2. Prepare the wall: time scale in working days from the milestone backwards, one color per trade, and a sticky template: task, duration (working days), crew size, location, "I need from ___".
3. List who must attend and what each should bring (quantities, crew availability, lead times).

### During (facilitation script)
4. Start from the milestone and ask "what must be done just before this, and what do you need to start?" Each handoff is a conversation between the performer and the customer of that task.
5. Durations are the performer's, without hidden contingency. Collect contingency later as visible buffers placed by the team.
6. Every "I need" that is not yet true becomes a constraint with an owner and a needed-by date.
7. When the chain reaches the start date, compare: if it does not fit, the team, not the facilitator, decides what to resequence, overlap or resource.

### After (digitise)
8. Transcribe the notes into a table: id, task, trade, location, duration, predecessors (handoffs), constraints. Ask the user about any unreadable note instead of guessing.
9. Compute the schedule backwards from the milestone (working days, the user's calendar), the critical chain and the buffer positions.
10. Produce the phase schedule (table, CSV for MS Project / P6 / a spreadsheet), the constraint log (feeds `make-ready-constraints`) and the list of handoff agreements.

## Output
- Milestone statement, phase schedule table, constraint log, handoff agreements, open questions.

## Never
- Never set a trade's duration or commitment for them; the facilitator asks, the performer decides.
- Never hide buffers inside activity durations.
- Never present the digitised plan as agreed until the participants have reviewed it.