The burndown chart is the primary signal for whether a sprint will complete on time. It plots remaining work (in story points) against time, showing how quickly the team is burning through the sprint commitment.
A burndown has two lines: the ideal line — a straight diagonal from total committed points on day one to zero on the last day — and the actual line — the real remaining points as stories are completed. The gap between them tells you where the sprint stands.
The Y-axis is remaining story points. The X-axis is the sprint timeline in working days. The chart updates in real time as stories are moved to Done.
| Shape | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking the ideal line closely | Sprint is on track. Work is being completed at the expected pace. | No action needed. Keep the rhythm. |
| Actual line above the ideal line | Behind schedule. Less work has been completed than planned for this point in the sprint. | Review blockers in the next standup. Check whether stories are stuck in review or waiting on dependencies. |
| Flat line (no downward movement) | No stories have been completed for one or more days. Work is stalled. | Identify what's blocking progress immediately. Often caused by a large story being worked on but not yet closed, or an external dependency. |
| Sudden vertical drop | Multiple stories were closed at once. Can indicate end-of-sprint scrambling or a batch of stories finishing together. | If it happens consistently at sprint end, the team may be closing stories too late. Encourage closing stories the day they're done. |
| Line rises (going up) | Story points have been added to the sprint mid-flight — more scope was brought in than was completed. | Scope creep. Review what was added and why. Protect sprint scope unless the added work is critical. |
| Drops below zero or ideal line early | Team is ahead of schedule. More was completed faster than planned. | Good news. Pull in backlog items if time allows, or use the buffer for quality improvements. |
Check the burndown at the start of each standup. It gives the whole team a shared, objective view of progress without requiring status updates from individuals.
A useful mid-sprint check: if the team is past the halfway point and the actual line is still above the ideal line, the sprint is unlikely to complete fully. At this point:
When stories are added to an active sprint, the total committed points increase and the ideal line recalculates. When stories are removed, it decreases. The chart always reflects the current committed scope.
The burndown is flat but the team says they're working
The burndown only drops when stories are moved to the Done column (or the final workflow stage configured as "complete"). If the team is working but not closing stories, the chart won't move. Remind the team to update story status the day work is completed, not at the end of the sprint.
The burndown shows a straight vertical drop at the end of every sprint
This is a workflow problem, not a chart problem. Stories are being completed but not closed until the last day. This makes it impossible to detect problems early. Set a team norm: close a story within 24 hours of it being done.
The ideal line doesn't look right
The ideal line is calculated from sprint start date, end date, working days, and total committed points. If working days are wrong, check Project Settings → Sprint Config to verify which days count as working days.
I can't see the burndown for a past sprint
Open the Sprint List, find the closed sprint, click it to open the sprint detail view, then navigate to the Burndown tab. Historical burndowns are preserved indefinitely.