Burn-down and Burn-up Charts

Burn-down charts

A burn-down chart is a graph with time plotted along the horizontal axis and the amount of remaining work tracked on the vertical axis. The amount of remaining work is expressed in points, which are the points on the scale of the project. Per day or per week, a value is added and then a line is drafted through all values.

Almost all Agile projects use burn-down charts because of their predictive value. It’s very simple to draw a trend line through all values in the graph, especially in Excel. The moment in time where this trend line intersects with the horizontal axis represents the expected completion date of the project given the average speed of the team. If the speed is changing up or down, the intersection point moves, resulting in different expected completion dates. The change occurs due to optimizing the method, new work items being introduced, or because work items become obsolete. When we use a burn-down chart, the change’s effects become visible immediately.