A mathematical construct having both direction and magnitude.
Magnitude And Direction
Magnitude in this scenario can be thought of as either a distance or an amount of effort. Direction is the common use. If you exert a lot of effort, but spread out across multiple directions, you end up not achieving very much. Even though the sum of your magnitude may be great, because it is dispersed, spread out, the individual efforts can be negligible.
On the other hand, if you are focused in one direction, but do not have much magnitude, you will still have lackluster results. Not putting much effort forth will obviously not get you very far.
Magnitude
Pulling this into the software development world now, magnitude can equate to the number of tickets completed. It is yours and your team’s velocity. You may be delivering many stories; checking off many tasks. But if it is not a focused effort, it may go unnoticed by the customers. Sure, your numbers look great, but none of the features have yet made it to a minimum product yet. The result is unsatisfied customers.
Direction
You may have a brilliant new business idea. A new product. A new software system. Yet if you do not take any effort on it, it will never get off the ground. A brilliant idea that is never executed amounts to essentially the same thing as never having the idea in the first place. Excitement does not count the same as execution. It may fuel and help push the execution, your magnitude, but it cannot replace it.