This graph shows you the progress of Releases over a period of time. The graph tracks how much work is left to be done. Work could be User Story points or spent hours, depending on your project settings.

Release-Burn-down-chart-in-Points

Release Burndown chart is used to know the difference in work left versus planned work of a Release. A smooth drop of the red line along the time, on the graph, shows the continuous progress of Done work items. Release work will complete when both lines meet.

Interpret this Graph

  • X axis displays the working days as date.
  • Y axis represents “Remaining Story Points” or “Remaining Effort in Hours”. Values depend on your project estimation settings.
  • Ideal effort as a guideline/projection is indicated by the blue line. This line indicates the required progress pace to finish all planned work at a uniform rate by the end of Release date.
  • Actual effort progress is indicated by the Red Line. It shows the sum of “Effort Remaining”.
  • Each dotted point on the Blue line, is the sum of the work “TO BE COMPETED” on that date.
Note: The leftmost corner of graph shows the planned work at start date of Release. The rightmost side of the graph is the closing date of this Release. All planned work is expected to finish by that date.

Prerequisites for this graph

Make sure that all user stories have an initial estimate before start working on the Release. If a User Story does not have any estimation value, it will not be considered in graph statistics and graphs will not show the real picture of your project.

Important Notes

  • Change in Red line only appears in the graph, when a planned User Story is Completed/Done. A User Story is considered as “Complete” or ”Done” only when it is assigned a status of “Done” category. Check your Release board status set settings via board layout editor.
  • Release status (Planning, Active, Accepted) does not impact on the graph. You can check your release status by clicking on Right navigation menu > Settings > Edit Release Details
Status Set as “Hours” Example:

A Project where Estimation Setting is “Hours”. Y-axis will show remaining effort number in Hours, once a User Story is complete.

Release-Burn-down-chart-in-hours