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Productivity methods and focus

Burndown chart

A chart of the work left in a sprint or project against time, showing whether a team is on pace to finish by the end date.

What It Means

A burndown chart shows how much work is left against how much time is left. Work remaining runs up the side, in story pointsStory pointsA unit agile teams use to estimate the relative effort of a piece of work, weighing its size, complexity and uncertainty rather than hours. See more, hours or whatever the team estimates in, and days run along the bottom. In Jira's version a gray guideline falls in a straight line from the sprint's total estimate on the first day to zero on the last, and a red line shows the work actually remaining, so a team can see at a glance whether it's likely to finish in time.

Try It: Check Today's Point on a Burndown Chart

Example numbers to start. Enter your sprint's total estimate, its length and today's actual remaining work.

Guideline burn per day4.0
Guideline says remaining24.0
Gap to the guideline2.0

Above the guideline. Talk at the next Daily Scrum about what's slowing things down, or agree a change of scope.

How People Say It

  • "The burndown's flat, nothing's closing."
  • "We're above the line again this sprint."
  • "Why did the burndown jump up on Wednesday?"

The Breakdown

How to read a burndown chart

  1. Find the starting point on the left: the total estimate for the work committed to the sprint.
  2. Follow the guideline, the straight line down to zero on the last day. That's the pace for steady progress.
  3. Compare the actual line with it. Below means ahead of steady pace; above means behind.
  4. Look for flat stretches, where work was started and nothing was finished.
  5. Watch for jumps up. A rise means the remaining work grew, for example when work was added after the sprint started.

Worked example (the calculator's numbers)

FigureValue
Total estimate at the start40 points
Working days in the sprint1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more
Guideline burn per day40 รท 10 = 4 points
After 4 days, the guideline says40 minus 16 = 24 points left
Actually left26 points
Gap2 points behind

Two points behind on day four is worth raising at the next Daily ScrumDaily scrumThe 15-minute Scrum event where the Developers meet each working day to check progress toward the Sprint Goal and adjust their plan. See more, while there's still time to adjust.

Good to Know

The 2020 ScrumScrumA lightweight framework, defined in the Scrum Guide, in which a small team delivers work in fixed-length Sprints of one month or less and adjusts after each one. See more Guide lists burn-downs, burn-ups and cumulative flow as practices teams use to forecast progress, and it says they don't replace empiricism, since only what has already happened can inform forward-looking decisions. So a burndown is optional in Scrum. Atlassian's Jira help notes the chart draws in whatever estimation statistic the board uses, such as story points or hours, so estimate the work in one consistent unit before the sprint starts.

FAQ

What does the guideline on a burndown chart mean?

It's the pace of steady progress: a straight line from the sprint's total estimate on day one to zero on the last day, as Atlassian's Jira help describes it.

Is it good to be above or below the line?

Below. In Jira's sprint burndown, the red line of actual remaining work sitting under the gray guideline means the team is on track to finish.

Is a burndown chart required in Scrum?

No. The 2020 Scrum Guide names burn-downs as one of several ways to forecast progress and doesn't require any of them.

Do It in Buhata

Tasks and Team Space

Keep the sprint's work in Tasks in your Team Space with its points in each title, and at each Daily Scrum add up what's still open to plot today's point.

Open Buhata

Related Terms and Categories

  • Story points

    A unit agile teams use to estimate the relative effort of a piece of work, weighing its size, complexity and uncertainty rather than hours.

  • Sprint backlog

    In Scrum, the Sprint Goal, the Product Backlog items chosen for the Sprint and the Developers' plan for delivering them, kept visible and updated daily.

  • Daily scrum

    The 15-minute Scrum event where the Developers meet each working day to check progress toward the Sprint Goal and adjust their plan.

  • Work in progress limit

    A cap on how many tasks can sit in one stage of work, such as In Progress, at the same time, so new work starts only when something finishes.

  • Kanban vs Scrum

    A comparison of two agile approaches: Scrum works in fixed-length Sprints with set accountabilities, and Kanban manages a continuous flow of work with limits on work in progress.

Productivity methods and focus

Sources

Atlassian Support, "What is the sprint burndown report?" (Jira Cloud); Atlassian, "Agile Burndown Chart Tutorial: How to Create & Use"; Atlassian Support, "Jira Burndown chart is missing the guideline or estimation data"; Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, The 2020 Scrum Guide (scrumguides.org)

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