Bad Tickets (Work Items according to Jira) = More Meetings

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

Long meetings are a problem, but not THE PROBLEM

The root cause is invisible on the board

Tickets/ Work Items that can’t answer their own questions.

When a ticket is vague, the team fills the gap with meetings, side threads, and endless “quick” calls.

The Hidden bill:

Flow broken → slower cycle time. Every interruption resets your focus.

Same “So… what does this story do?” conversation. Every. Single. Time.

I use 3 questions to evaluate every ticket:

🟣What’s being built?
Clear acceptance criteria a junior dev can follow.

🟣Why does it matter?
One-line user or business outcome.

🟣What matters most right now?
The single non-negotiable (performance, pixel, edge case).

If a ticket fails any question, it’s not ready. Period.

Rewrite it before you schedule another call.