Trackwell Sprint Burndown

What it is for

A burndown chart shows how much work is left in a sprint, day by day, next to an ideal straight line from the committed amount to zero. A burnup chart shows the same sprint from the other side: completed work rising towards the scope line. Burnup makes scope changes visible — when work is added in the middle of a sprint, the scope line jumps, and a burndown alone would look as if the team had slowed down.

This tool draws both from either a Trackwell project (it replays the history of every issue: when it entered or left the sprint, when it was done, and its story points at that moment) or a plain table of items with points and dates, for teams that track sprints elsewhere. The dashboard in the Trackwell app uses the same function, so the numbers match.

Worked example

The first example is the active sprint of the Software team (scrum) template, WEB Sprint 3 (2026-11-15 to 2026-11-28), counted on 2026-11-24 in story points:

WEB Sprint 3: 8 of 21 points done by 2026-11-24, 13 remaining (committed 21).

The sprint started with 21 points. Nothing was done in the first five days; on 2026-11-20 the remaining work drops to 16 and on 2026-11-22 to 13. The ideal line is at 6.46 points on 2026-11-24, so the team is behind. The warnings say that WEB-15 and WEB-16 were added after the start, and that days after the 24th are not drawn yet. Still open: WEB-12, WEB-13, WEB-14 and WEB-16.

The third example uses a table instead: a ten-working-day sprint from 2026-11-02 to 2026-11-13 with six items. Item A-5 (3 points) was added on 2026-11-04 and A-4 (2 points) was removed on 2026-11-06:

Sprint: 16 of 24 points done by 2026-11-13, 8 remaining (committed 23).

The scope went from 23 to 26 and back to 24; 16 points were done, A-5 and A-6 were not finished.

How to read the result

• Committed — the work in the sprint at the end of the first day. Scope now — at the last day drawn.
• Completed / Remaining — remaining = scope minus completed.
• Burndown — the remaining line against the ideal line. Burnup — completed against scope.
• Days table — date, scope, completed, remaining and ideal per day; the same as the CSV download.
• Added after the start / Removed / Not finished — the issue keys behind the scope changes.

Tips and common mistakes

• Set Today is to a fixed day when you compare runs; days after it stay empty.
• Choose Issue count when your team doesn't estimate; every issue then counts as one.
• In the table, a date without a time counts at the end of that day, so an item done on the 5th is gone from the remaining line on the 5th.
• Items added on the start day count as committed. Items removed before the start are not part of the sprint.
• Points changed during the sprint are taken at each day's end, so re-estimating an issue moves the scope line too.
• An issue that was done and then reopened counts as done only for the days it was done.

FAQ

Burndown or burnup — which one should I show?

The burnup, when the scope changes often: it separates finished work from added work. The burndown is easier to read for a stable sprint.

Why is the committed value not the planned value?

Committed is the scope at the end of the first day, so issues added on the start day count as planned.

Can I use it without Trackwell?

Yes. Fill in the items table with points and dates.