Team burndowns

About this report

As the name of the report indicates, the team burndowns report displays story point burndown/burnup charts for a selected team. The chart at the top of the page displays the most recent in-progress sprint; the charts below show the last four completed sprints in the selected PI.

If two sprints are active at the same time, the most recent sprint burndown will display on the team burndowns page. To see other active sprint burndowns, go to the team room, set the desired sprint, and then click the metrics icon to view the burndowns.

These charts represent work remaining/completed versus time; the remaining story points are on the vertical axis, and days in the sprint are on the horizontal axis. These charts are especially useful for Scrum Masters, team leaders and members, and product owners for predicting when all work will be completed by a team; it provides a high-level understanding of whether the work for a sprint is on track. It may be beneficial to review the report with team members and stakeholders during sprint retrospectives and daily standup meetings. This report is generated by selecting a specific program, team, and PI.

Five elements are available on each chart:

• Ideal Burn
• Points Remaining
• Dev Complete
• Test Complete
• Points Accepted

To navigate to this report:

1. Select Teams in the top navigation bar and select the team you want to view information about.
2. On the sidebar, select Reports in the list of options.
3. Select Burndowns; the report displays.
   

Prerequisites

1. PI must exist in the system, with sprints defined. 
2. Features must be created and tied to the PI. 
3. Stories, with point values, must be created and tied to features. 
4. Stories must be assigned to sprints. 
5. Tasks must be created and assigned to stories. 
6. Tasks ideally should be estimated in hours. 
7. Teams members must be aligned to target sprints and tasked to stories. 

How are report values calculated? 

• The horizontal axis displays the range of the sprint, from the start date to the finish date, with a day’s buffer at each end. 
• The vertical axis displays a range for the remaining story points, using total count of story points for the sprint.
• Ideal Burn: (Sum of LOE points from all stories currently assigned to the sprint) / (Number of days in the sprint).
  • This line will recalculate to set the current sum of LOE points planned as the number of planned points on the first day of the sprint.
• Points Remaining: (Sum of LOE points from all stories planned in the sprint) - (Sum of LOE points from accepted stories assigned to the sprint).
  • If a story is added to the sprint after the start date, the line will show an increase on the day of the add.
  • If a story is dropped, deleted, or canceled after the sprint start date, the line will show a decrease on the day of the change.
  • If an accepted story is moved back to a previous state, the line will show an increase on the day of the change.
• Dev Complete: Sum of LOE points from all dev complete stories assigned to the sprint.
  • The line will increase on the day a story is marked dev complete.
  • If a story is dropped, deleted, or canceled after the sprint start date, the line will show a decrease on the day of the change.
  • If a dev complete story is moved back to a previous state, the line will show an increase on the day of the change.
• Test Complete: Sum of LOE points from all test complete stories assigned to the sprint.
  • The line will increase on the day a story is marked test complete.
  • If a story is dropped, deleted, or canceled after the sprint start date, the line will show a decrease on the day of the change.
  • If a test complete story is moved back to a previous state, the line will show an increase on the day of the change.
• Points Accepted: Sum of LOE points from all accepted stories assigned to the sprint.
  • Stories accepted after the sprint end date will be included in the total
  • If a story is dropped, deleted, or canceled, the line will show a decrease
  • If an accepted story is moved back to a previous state, the line will show a decrease.

How to interpret this report

Assuming the team has estimated stories and tasks accurately and no unforeseen problems have occurred, the Points Remaining line should track to the Ideal Burn target. However, some variation around the Ideal Burn line should be expected. Generally, the further the Points Remaining line rises above the Ideal Burn line, the lower the probability that the team can complete all of the story points defined for the sprint, without adjusting allocations. Keep in mind that the objective of Agile is to maintain the highest sustainable and consistent velocity that is possible over time. Reallocation on a regular basis is less than ideal and should be frowned upon. 

As stories are completed and accepted, the Dev Complete, Test Complete, and Points Accepted lines will trend upwards, typically near the end of the sprint.

Use the results of the charts to make corrections in the upcoming sprint. For example, you may need to leverage the Jira Align planning and estimating tools to improve the quality of your story estimates.