Purpose
Helps clarify backlog, sprint work, and team flow in concrete terms. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as Ideal Day Estimates, Assumption Notes, and Capacity Caveats.
Agile
Ideal Days
Moves backlog, sprint work, and team flow toward a concrete result through "explain the ideal day unit", "calibrate with a reference item", and "do not confuse it with calendar days".
How many ideal days are needed for this item under focused work, and what assumptions about interruptions, dependencies, and uncertainty are made?
LowWorkshop + async15-60 min
How it works
The team follows the steps "explain the ideal day unit", "calibrate with a reference item", "estimate items", "mark dependencies", and "do not confuse it with calendar days". Each step is made visible. At the end, Ideal Day Estimates, Assumption Notes, and Capacity Caveats are available so decisions, tests, or actions can continue directly.
Visual orientation
Method sketch for a quick mental model.
Flow
- 1Explain the ideal day unit
- 2Calibrate with a reference item
- 3Estimate items
- 4Mark dependencies
- 5Do not confuse it with calendar days
The runsheet guides execution with 4 phases, timeboxes, 5 pitfalls, and clear stop criteria.
Open runsheetIdeal for
- Effort estimation
- Stakeholder communication
- Teams with similar work
Not good for
- Lead time forecasts
- Highly interrupted work
- Management control metrics
Deep dive
In detail
Ideal Days separate effort from calendar time. An ideal day means one day of focused work without context switching, blockers, meetings, or queues. This lets teams talk about effort more concretely without turning that into a delivery date. The method needs calibration because real lead time is usually much higher than ideal working time.
Facilitation
Explain the difference between ideal working time and calendar time very clearly. Estimate together, not per role, when the team delivers jointly. Add assumptions about interruptions, dependencies, and uncertainty.
Output artifacts
Ideal Day EstimatesAssumption NotesCapacity Caveats
Artifact templates
Ideal Days Working TemplateCompact working template for Ideal Days with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.markdown
Ideal Days Working TemplateCompact working template for Ideal Days with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
markdownideal-days-working-template.md
Compact working template for Ideal Days with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Ideal Days Working Template
Goal
Estimates work in idealized work days without interruptions, meetings, or waiting time.
Context
When and for what do we use this method?
Input
Which data, observations, decisions, or materials are available?
Execution
Short notes along the runsheet.
Output artifacts
- Ideal Day Estimates:
- Assumption Notes:
- Capacity Caveats:
Assumptions and open questions
- ...
Decision / Next step
Owner, date, and success signal.
When to choose differently
Short decision aid for existing alternatives.
Story Points
Statt Ideal Days, wenn ihr relative Komplexität statt Kalenderzeit schätzen wollt und eure Schätzung im Team kalibrieren möchtet.
Monte Carlo Forecasting
Statt Ideal Days, wenn ihr mit Wahrscheinlichkeiten statt mit Einzelschätzungen planen wollt.
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Statt Ideal Days, wenn ihr relative Komplexität statt Kalenderzeit schätzen wollt und eure Schätzung im Team kalibrieren möchtet.
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