#2 Report of the week: Story Point Burn-Down in Sprint

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Continuing our recently launched initiative “Report of the Week”, this week we will focus on one of the most popular reports among eazyBI users – Story point burn-down in sprint. This report offers a visual representation of work completed, work remaining, and the likelihood of achieving the sprint goals. Let’s break down the key components of this chart.

The main objective of the sprint burn-down chart is to track the total work remaining and forecast whether the team is likely to meet the sprint goal. By visualizing the trend of work completed and remaining, this chart serves as an early warning system, helping teams identify potential risks and adjust their efforts accordingly.

The chart provides three essential pieces of information:

1. Current Trend – Shows the trend of current progress.

2. Optimal Burn-down – Displays an ideal burn-down curve, showing the optimal pace of progress.

3. Resolved and Remaining Story Points – Indicates how much work has been done and how much is left to do, measured in story points.

What Are We Measuring? Y-Axis

The Y-axis of the sprint burndown chart measures various elements related to work completion and forecasting. Here’s what you’ll find:

• Story Points Resolved: This metric shows how many story points (tasks or features) have been completed on each day of the sprint.

• Cumulative Story Points Resolved: A cumulative total of story points completed up to any given day in the sprint.

• Story Points Remaining: As the name suggests, this shows how many story points remain to complete for the sprint.

• Linear Trend Story Points Remaining: This is a calculated projection, offering a visual trend line that helps forecast when the remaining work will be completed based on current progress.

• Sprint Story Points Guideline: This is the ideal burndown line representing the optimal pace of work completion, helping teams gauge how close they are to staying on target.

What Are We Measuring? X-Axis

The X-axis represents all days within the active sprint. It allows the team to see daily progress or stagnation.

Filtering Options

This burn-down chart comes with a few key filters that allow to refine the data being visualized:

• Sprint Filter: In this case, the chart is set to "D1 Sprint 5" from the "D1 Board," meaning it’s tracking progress for that specific sprint.

• Assignee Filter: The chart is currently set to "All Assignees," providing a team-wide view of progress. However, it can also be filtered to show data for specific team members if needed.

What Does the Burn-down Chart Help the Team See?

With all these visual elements in place, the sprint burn-down chart offers a powerful summary of key sprint information, including:

1. Daily Progress: How much work has been completed daily (Story Points Resolved).

2. Cumulative Work Done: The total work completed so far (Cumulative Story Points Resolved).

3. Remaining Work: The amount of work still left (Story Points Remaining).

4. Sprint Goal Progress: Shows whether the team is on track to complete all work by comparing the remaining story points line to the guideline.

5. Work Completion Forecast: A projection of when the sprint might be finished, based on the current progress trend (Linear Trend Line).

Conclusion

In Agile development, the sprint burn-down chart is more than just a report. It’s a decision-making tool that helps teams quickly assess their progress, adjust their efforts, and plan more effectively. With a clear understanding of how much work has been done and how much is left, teams can confidently move toward meeting their sprint goals, all while keeping stakeholders informed and on board.

Try out this report on your data! Export the report definition and paste it into your account to analyze your data with a couple of clicks.