Manufacturing tasks used to be manual up until the Industrial Revolution. We’re now experiencing another revolution, with technology making processes easier, faster, and more efficient. Today, artificial intelligence and machine learning are automating machine maintenance, optimizing inventory, and even helping out humans.

There are work items that will give the team an operational boost and perhaps avoid a crisis, but that never make it to the top of the priority list—like build and deployment improvements, or paying down technical debt. For enabling work that is valuable but too invisible to be a priority, consider breaking it down.

Agile projects focus on very lightweight, simple requirements embodied in user stories. However, there are some problems with relying solely on user stories. They often don't contain enough accuracy for development, testing, or industry regulations. There's a better way to write detailed requirements that are still agile.