If you learn to interpret the iteration burn down charts or sprint burn down charts, then you have understood agile or scrum conceptually correct. This article will walk you through the iteration burn down chart of a sprint.
Day#1
The Iteration or Sprint starts with the Iteration planning meeting. The output of the iteration planning meeting are;
- The list of features to be developed during the iteration
- Estimated story points (feature points) for the features (Fibonacci series)
- The activities that need to be performed and their effort estimates
- The tracking board (kanban board) which has the columns for;
- To be done
- Being done
- Done
- Two types of the Iteration / Sprint burn down chart
- One with cumulative effort required to complete the sprint on the ‘Y’ axis and the duration of the sprint on the ‘X’ axis. The balance effort required to complete the sprint gets updated on a daily basis. This is a re-estimate by the team on a daily basis (this is not planned effort – consumed effort). This type of iteration burn down charts with the effort required to complete the iteration on the ‘Y’ axis and the iteration duration on the ‘X’ axis will help teams to speed up when required.
- Teams use Iteration burn down to monitor the story points completed against the story points planned within the iteration. In this case the ‘Y’ axis will have the total story points planned for the sprint. This will get decreased based on the actual story points completed. This type of iteration burn down charts help the project stakeholders, especially the product owner to monitor and control the story points planned Vs achieved within the iteration.
Sprint burn down – Immediately after the planning meeting
Sprint burn down after day#2 of the sprint