Leaderboard

Benchmark Six Sigma Expert View by Venugopal R Burn Down and Burn Up charts are used in Agile Scrum for visual tracking of the progress of a project. The charts typically use ‘Project Story points’ on the Y axis and the no. of iterations on the X axis. Story points are metrics used in agile management to quantify the effort for implementing a given story. Sometimes the time (total FTE hours) is used instead of story points. Burn Down charts help to see the remaining amount of work, the pace of the project with respect to the target, and will give an idea with how close or far the actual completion date will compare with the targeted date, considering the current pace of the project. Burn up charts help to see the progress of work till date with respect to the ideal curve. It has an additional horizontal line that shows the scope of the project at any point of time. In case there is a change in scope, this line will show it as a step up or down. This chart helps in assessing the real efforts being put in by the team, since effect of scope changes could be considered. Thus, it would help in assessing KPIs. Since burn down charts depict the remaining work to be completed, as compared to an ideal target at each iteration, they will be useful for providing commitments to clients and keep them apprised as to the closeness to completion. Burn down charts are simpler and easily comprehensible and would serve the purpose if there are no changes in scope. Both Burn Up and Burn Down charts may be used together for a project for their respective benefits