Scrum teams use burndown charts to monitor how quickly they’re completing work and whether they’re on track to finish everything planned for a sprint. The chart updates automatically as stories move through the sprint, helping teams spot risks early.

Teams typically use the burndown chart to:

Monitor progress during an active sprint
Identify early signs of delivery risk
Discuss scope trade-offs with the team
Review how work progressed in completed sprints
Support sprint retrospectives

View the burndown chart

The burndown chart is available for both current and historical sprints, allowing you to track active progress or review past performance.

Current sprint

Open your team’s In progress or Backlog page.
Click the ellipsis (...) icon next to the current sprint's duration and select View sprint details.
Scroll to the Burndown chart section at the bottom of the dialog.

Sprint calendar

The Sprint calendar lets you open sprint details for both active and completed sprints.

Open the Sprint calendar.
Hover over a sprint.
Click the ellipsis (...) icon next to the sprint and select Edit sprint.
Scroll to the Burndown chart section at the bottom of the dialog.

What the chart shows

The burndown chart plots how much sprint work remained at each point in time during the sprint:

Y-axis: Story points remaining in the sprint
X-axis: Dates from sprint start to sprint end

The chart includes:

Guideline: An ideal, linear path from full scope at sprint start to zero remaining work at sprint end.
Actual: Daily data points showing the total remaining story points.
Projected: For active sprints, a trend line estimating how the sprint is progressing based on recent work.

Interpreting the chart

Daily progress

Each point on the Actual line represents the total number of story points remaining at the end of that day. The chart updates automatically as stories are completed or moved to Won’t do.

A steady downward trend indicates consistent progress. Flat or upward movement usually indicates blocked work or scope changes.

Inspect changes

Hover over a point on the Actual line to see a popup for that day. This works for both active and completed sprints.

The popup always shows:

The date
Story points remaining

It may also show:

Story points closed since the previous day
Whether the sprint was ahead of target or behind target, and by how many story points

The ahead of target or behind target value shows how the sprint’s actual progress compared to the guideline on that date.

Guideline vs actual

The Guideline represents the ideal pace needed to complete the sprint on time. The Actual line shows what actually happened.

Comparing the two helps you quickly see whether work is completing faster or slower than planned on any given day.

Projection (active sprints only)

If there are at least three data points on the Actual line (excluding the first day of the sprint), the chart displays a Projected line.

The projected line is a best-fit regression line based on the sprint’s progress so far. It shows the overall trend of the sprint if the current pace continues.

For completed sprints, the projected line is not shown. The chart displays only the actual burndown that occurred.

Effect of scope changes on the burndown

Changing the sprint scope recalculates the burndown chart to reflect the new total. You’ll see a warning before making scope changes to active or completed sprints.

Scope changes include:

Adding stories to the sprint
Removing stories from the sprint
Moving stories to 'Won't do'
Moving stories between 'To do/In progress' and 'Done'

Active sprints

Adding stories mid-sprint increases the total work, while removing stories or moving them to 'Won’t do' reduces it. Because scope changes alter the shape of the burndown, they can make it harder to evaluate whether the team is maintaining consistent velocity.

Completed sprints

Changing the scope of a completed sprint updates its burndown and affects historical velocity calculations used for future sprint planning. Retroactive scope changes can skew planning data, so proceed carefully.

The burndown chart is recalculated automatically if the sprint’s start date, end date, or contents change.

Notes and assumptions

Unsized stories

Stories without a size estimate are still included in the burndown chart using inferred values:

Unsized stories count as the nearest Fibonacci number to the team’s average sized story.
If a sprint contains no sized stories, each unsized story counts as one story point.

This ensures all sprint work is reflected in the burndown, even if sizing isn’t complete.