Burndown Chart
Track sprint progress with our free Burndown Chart calculator for Agile teams. Calculate current vs required burndown speed, remaining story points, and visualize sprint velocity.
About This Calculator
The Burndown Chart Calculator helps Agile and Scrum teams track their sprint progress by comparing actual work completed against the ideal pace. Enter your sprint duration, total story points, work completed, and days elapsed to instantly see whether your team is on track to finish all tasks by the sprint deadline.
This tool is designed for product managers, Scrum masters, and software development teams who use Agile methodologies. It calculates key sprint metrics including current burndown speed, required burndown speed, remaining story points, and overall progress percentage. The interactive burndown chart visualizes your ideal burndown line alongside your actual progress so you can quickly identify if the team needs to accelerate.
How the burndown chart calculation works
The current burndown speed is calculated by dividing story points burnt by days elapsed: story points burnt ÷ days elapsed. The required burndown speed tells you the pace needed to finish the remaining work: (total story points − story points burnt) ÷ (sprint duration − days elapsed). If the current speed is lower than the required speed, the team is behind schedule and needs to increase velocity to complete the sprint on time.
Regional notes
This calculator is globally applicable for any Agile or Scrum team regardless of location. Story points are unitless measures of work complexity used worldwide in software development and project management. No currency or region-specific settings are required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a burndown chart in Scrum?
A burndown chart is a visual tool used in Agile and Scrum to track the amount of work completed versus the amount remaining over the course of a sprint. The x-axis represents the sprint days and the y-axis shows the story points remaining, helping teams monitor whether they are on track to complete all work by the sprint deadline.
How do you calculate burndown speed?
Current burndown speed is calculated by dividing the total story points burnt by the number of days elapsed since the sprint started. The formula is: current burndown speed = story points burnt / days elapsed. For example, if a team has burnt 15 story points over 5 days, their current burndown speed is 3 story points per day.
How do you calculate required burndown speed?
Required burndown speed is the pace needed to complete all remaining work within the sprint. The formula is: required burndown speed = (total story points - story points burnt) / (sprint duration - days elapsed). If 20 story points remain and 5 days are left, the team needs to burn 4 story points per day to finish on time.
Can story points be negative?
No, story points cannot be negative. A negative story point would mean the team is adding more work to the sprint instead of completing tasks, which goes against the purpose of a burndown chart. Story points should always be zero or positive values representing completed work.
What factors affect the burndown speed required?
The burndown speed required to complete the sprint on time is affected by two main factors: the number of days left in the sprint and the number of story points remaining. Fewer days left or more remaining points both increase the required speed, making it harder to finish on schedule.
What is the ideal burndown line?
The ideal burndown line is a straight line from the total story points at day zero down to zero at the end of the sprint. It represents the theoretical perfect pace where work is completed evenly every day. Teams compare their actual progress against this line to determine if they are ahead, on track, or behind schedule.
Is this Burndown Chart calculator free to use?
Yes, this Burndown Chart calculator is completely free to use with no registration or hidden charges. You can calculate sprint metrics, visualize burndown charts, and share your results via URL at no cost.
How is the burndown chart different from a burnup chart?
A burndown chart tracks the remaining work decreasing over time, while a burnup chart shows completed work accumulating upward. Burndown charts are more common in Scrum because they make it easy to see if the team is on pace to finish all work by the sprint deadline at a glance.