The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for managing a pull-schedule. The system includes a schedule for completing at least one milestone, the schedule comprising an active schedule portion and a pull-schedule portion and one or more tickets that can be represented in the active schedule portion and/or the pull schedule portion, each ticket comprising a task to be completed to reach the at least one milestone. A scheduling service includes a pull column partitioning engine to scan the pull-schedule portion to define one or more columns with boundaries at the vertical positions that do not overlap with any tickets, a pull column assigning engine to assign the one or more tickets to a column and assign planned start and finish dates to the tickets, and a pull column activation engine to move a collection of a tickets contained in a pull column to the active schedule portion.