Considering when to make certain decisions is just as important as how. “Inspect and adapt” is a valuable approach in agile, not only for product and process, but also for figuring out when to implement choices about your projects. Evaluating the reversibility, migration, and sustainability of decisions can help.

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.

Regardless of the size and scope of a crisis, any hope of resolving it quickly is made worse by something that often happens: when those in charge handle the situation poorly, such as going into denial, blaming others, or trying to resolve the situation secretly. Here's how you should deal with a company crisis.