What does it mean to be effective?

Is Scrum Team effectiveness based on how much work or how many increments or features they deliver? Or, is it when the Scrum Team members collaborate well together and they use  the Scrum framework efficiently? Delivering features and creating work in a collaborative and efficient way is positive. However efficiency does not necessarily mean that a team is effective at delivering value and delighting customers. 

Often, the terms efficiency and effectiveness are confused and used interchangeably. It is important to understand that they are two clear distinct concepts:

• Efficiency refers to the ability to do something in a way that minimizes the use of resources, such as time, money and effort. It is the measure of how well something is done. For Scrum Teams, this may look at how much work is done, the quality of that work and how quickly it was finished.
• Effectiveness refers to the extent to which something is successful in achieving its intended goals. It is the measure of how well something is achieving its objectives. The goal of a Scrum Team is to deliver value for the customer.

For instance, a highly efficient Scrum Team can deliver many product features in a timely manner without any obstacles. Nonetheless, if those features are not valuable to the customer and the team is not adapting their work based on customer feedback, then while this team may be efficient, they are also ineffective. The only thing we know is that they are good at delivering the wrong things fast. 

A Scrum Team (and an organization) is effective when they are able to deliver value to their customers in a collaborative and sustainable way. It is important that in a complex environment, they deliver frequently, in small and valuable batches to gather customer feedback early and often, and adapt as needed in order to satisfy customer desires.