Scrum Burn-Down

Have you ever used a scrum burn-down chart?  Funky name, huh?  It’s actually a pretty handy line chart.  The image below is an example from Standard Time®.  There, it’s called a project history chart.

On the X axis, you see time (weeks, months, quarters).  On the Y axis (vertical) you see the number of remaining hours for your project.  As work is applied to the project, it burns remaining hours down to zero.  Team members can see the downward trend and predict when the project will finish.  This is the “light at the end of the tunnel” chart that helps people push for completion.  Show this in your scrum sprint meetings, and your team members will take heart.

Scrum Burn-Down Chart

 As you can see, there are some up-ticks as well.  Those represent project scope changes.  Some bright individual decided the project needed a slowdown, and added some additional tasks.  Do that at your own peril, because this chart shows all.

–ray