One way to address poorly defined product backlog items is to spend time refining the items as you go. Refining the backlog continuously helps the team deliver consistently and can lead to shorter planning meetings at the start of the sprint. It can even help improve reliability, velocity, and the quality of work.

If testing is taking awhile and a lot of bugs are getting into production, it's a good idea to review your entire test strategy. Spend some time understanding the current process and what testing is happening through the dev process—not what is outlined in a process wiki, but the work that actually happens.

People often have the wrong impression regarding the activities and responsibilities of project managers. You'll hear them say that managing a software project is all about delegating work and keeping the crew in line, but it's more than that. Let's debunk three common, pervasive myths about project managers.