This presentation provides a detailed overview of how to read and interpret burn up and burn down charts which are standard in Agile project management. TaskTrakz project management software automatically provides these charts so you can easily see your project progress. Check out TaskTrakz at http://www.tasktrakz.com.

1. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down vs Burn Up Charts
(And how to read them like a pro)

2. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
2 types of charts
Each shows progressively more information:

3. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
3 types of charts
Each shows progressively more information:
• Burn down chart

4. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
3 types of charts
Each shows progressively more information:
• Burn down chart
• Burn up chart

5. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
A single line showing work remaining in the project on each day

6. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
The vertical axis is the amount of work remaining
In this chart this is the number of tasks remaining, but estimated hours
remaining can be used instead

7. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
The horizontal axis is time
In this chart this is per day, but any other timescale can be used such as weeks,
months or hours

8. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
What does this tell us?
For one thing it tells us there were 7 tasks remaining on July 18th and all tasks
Were completed on July 23rd

9. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Why Use A Burn Down Chart?
We can see the project velocity
• Velocity is how fast the project is approaching its
goal
• We can visually compare the actual velocity against
the velocity required to meet the deadline
• Better than just knowing a point in time
percentage complete

10. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
The red dotted line is the ideal burn down rate to complete by July 23rd
Comparing the actual burn down to the ideal burn down can reveal interesting
Information about your project

11. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
At the marked point the team is behind schedule as they are above the ideal
Line. We can also see that the teams velocity is low, they are not completing
Tasks quickly enough.
At this point the project manager investigates and takes corrective action.

12. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
The project team is still behind schedule, but has a good velocity.
Extrapolating the recent velocity (green line) we can see the team is on track
To meet the deadline.

13. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down Chart
Finally we see that the team made the deadline on July 23rd

14. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Problems With Burn Down Charts
Burn down charts have a major assumption:
The amount of work does not change
This leads to problems in a few situations

15. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Problems With Burn Down Charts
What is happening here? It looks like the team is not doing any work

16. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Problems With Burn Down Charts
And what about here? A heroic last minute effort by the team?

17. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Problems With Burn Down Charts
• Actually the amount of work in the project is
changing
• In the flat part of the chart more work is being
added
• At the end of the project a large amount of
work was removed to make the deadline
• To see this in a chart we use the burn up chart

18. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Up Chart
Two lines:
• Grey line showing total work in projects
• Blue line showing work completed so far

19. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down vs Burn Up
As you can see, when the total work is constant this is just an
Inverted burn down chart

20. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down vs Burn Up
But when the work changes as in our last burn down chart you can
see the change in scope

21. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down vs Burn Up
In the burn down chart it looks like the team is not making any
progress. In the burn up chart it is clear the team is making progress
but new work is being added as fast as they can complete it.

22. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down vs Burn Up
If the project manager only looked at the burn down chart they
may discuss performance with the team. If the manager looks
at the burn up chart, it is clear that the rate at which work is
added needs to be addressed, possibly through discussions
with the customer.

23. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Down vs Burn Up
In the burn down chart it looks like the team is made a heroic
effort at the end. In the burn up chart it is clear that work was
removed from the project to meet the deadline. (The work
may have been moved to the next version or milestone)

24. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Burn Up Chart
Adding the total work information allows you to get more from
the chart

25. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Which To Use?
• Use a burn down chart if the amount of work
is fixed
• Otherwise use a burn up chart to make sure
you can correctly recognize and diagnose
problems

26. TaskTrakz
Project Management Software
Thank you
Check out TaskTrakz project management, it
automatically gives you burn up and burn down
charts for all of your projects.
www.tasktrakz.com