Project management is about supporting informed decision-making. No one wants to break the news that a project is not on schedule, but a good sponsor would want to know that the original goals are no longer realistic. Reluctance to communicate or unwillingness to hear have some real business consequences.

Quality can’t be just another box you need to check off at the very bottom of your to-do list. If you don’t properly test your application—whether that’s through traditional manual work or strategic automation—there’s a significant chance the final product won’t find a real audience.

Many software practices rely on setting target numbers for the team to hit. But when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. People start gaming the system by changing their behavior in such a way to favorably adjust the measure in order to achieve the target. Don't get hung up on metrics.