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Software Engineering vocabulary · Agile and Team Workflow

Push back

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

phrasal verbCore term

In software engineering, push back means: To disagree with or resist a request, decision or deadline, usually politely and with reasons; also, to move a date to later.

In Turkish: itiraz etmek, karşı çıkmak, ertelemek

How it is used

Saying no is part of a PM's job, so push back on is heard daily: push back on a request, push back on scope. The noun is pushback: we got some pushback from sales. In the second meaning: the launch was pushed back to May.

Example sentences

  1. I pushed back on the request because it would delay the security work.

  2. The launch was pushed back by two weeks after the beta results.

Common collocations

  • push back on a request
  • get pushback
  • push back on scope
  • push back the deadline
  • trade-offA situation where getting more of one good thing means accepting less of another, such as speed versus accuracy or simplicity versus flexibility.
  • stakeholderAny person or group that is affected by a project or has a say in it, such as customers, managers, other teams, the legal team or support.
  • prioritizeTo decide which tasks are most important or urgent and should be done first, especially when there is not enough time for everything.
  • escalateTo pass an alert, incident or problem to a more senior person or team because it is serious or beyond your own authority or skills.
  • scope creepThe slow, uncontrolled growth of a project's requirements after work has started, as small extra requests keep being added without changing the deadline or budget.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Agile and Team Workflow

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