Ideal Effort
[ahy-dee-uh l ef-ert]
Definition of Ideal Effort
The amount of effort it would take to build something if conditions were as they should be; there are no impediments of any kind, and you don’t require any magic or miracles. This is actually a measure of Size because Ideal Effort would not differ from Team to Team.
Examples
StoryPoints are about Ideal Effort, which is the amount of work spent developing what we want – not dealing with Impediments. In other words, StoryPoints (Ideal Effort) are only about the Product, not about the difficulty (or ease) of development.
The ideal effort the team is hoping to spend on this Story is one week.
External Sources
Cite This Term
"Ideal Effort" ScrumDictionary.com. Accessed Jul 02, 2025. https://scrumdictionary.com/term/ideal-effort/.