Burndown chart
It is one of the most common tracking artifacts in Scrum, although it is not part of the standard framework. Its value lies in making the team's pace of progress visible at a glance, without the need for meetings or reports.
Chart axes and how to read the chart
- Y-axis (vertical): remaining work, measured in story points, hours, or any unit the team uses.
- X-axis (horizontal): days of the sprint.
The ideal progress line is the diagonal running from the total committed work at the start of the sprint down to zero on the last day. The actual progress line is rarely perfectly diagonal, but it should stay close to it for the sprint to remain on track.
Common patterns
Sprint with normal progress
The actual line fluctuates around the ideal diagonal without drifting away from it to a worrying degree. This is the most common pattern.
Underestimated sprint
The actual line falls more slowly than the ideal one: the work is turning out to be more complex than estimated, and the team will not finish everything it committed to.
Overestimated sprint
The actual line falls faster than the ideal one: the stories were smaller than estimated. The team will finish early and could take on additional work from the Product Backlog.
Updating by stories instead of tasks
When the team works with user stories instead of individual tasks, the chart can be updated for each completed story: all of a story's points are subtracted at once, when it is done. This simplifies chart maintenance and reduces the risk of partial updates (stories that are almost done but never actually get closed).
Common mistake
Updating the chart once a week or at the Sprint Review. The value of the burndown chart lies precisely in early detection: if it is only updated at the end of the sprint, when the problem is already visible, it has lost its purpose. It should be updated daily, even if that happens at the end of the day or at the start of the next one.
Resources
📄 Scrum Master v.4.0 [in Spanish] — Section: sprint trackingFree download · Scrum Manager
📄 Scrum Master en equipos con IA v.1.0 [Scrum Master in Teams with AI v.1.0, in Spanish]Free download · Scrum Manager
See also
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