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Recipe

Burndown Chart

Track sprint progress by visualizing remaining work against time. Spot scope creep and velocity issues before they derail your delivery date.

Ingredients

  • A sprint backlog with estimated story points per task
  • Daily snapshots of remaining work (manual or automated)
  • An ideal-burndown reference line from total points to zero

Steps

  1. 1Plot total story points on the Y-axis and sprint days on the X-axis. Draw the ideal line from day-zero total to zero on the final day.
  2. 2At each standup, record the sum of remaining story points. Plot the actual burndown as a second series.
  3. 3When the actual line flattens, investigate blockers. When it rises, challenge scope additions immediately.

Pro tip

Overlay a trendline on the last three data points. If it intersects the X-axis after the sprint end date, raise the flag in the next retro — don't wait.

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