Burndown chart

A burndown chart plots how much work is left in a sprint against the days remaining. The vertical axis is remaining work — usually in story points — and the horizontal axis is time. As tasks get done, the line drops toward zero. A straight diagonal "ideal" line shows the pace needed to finish on time; the actual line above or below it tells you whether you're behind or ahead.

How to read a burndown

If the actual line sits above the ideal line, more work remains than planned — the team is behind. If it's below, they're ahead. A flat stretch means nothing got completed (work started but not finished, or scope got stuck). A sudden jump up means scope was added mid-sprint, which is usually a planning smell worth discussing.

Burndown vs. burnup

A burndown shows remaining work shrinking to zero. A burnup chart instead shows completed work rising toward a total-scope line. Burnups make mid-sprint scope changes more visible, because the total-scope line moves separately from the completed-work line — which is why many teams prefer them.

Why small teams skip it

Burndown charts earn their keep when a team commits to a fixed scope on a fixed date and stakeholders want to watch the trajectory. For continuous-flow teams with no sprint boundary, there's nothing to burn down — work flows in and out continuously. The relevant metric there is cycle time, not remaining sprint scope.

How GritShip handles this

GritShip has no burndown charts because it has no sprints to chart. It's built for teams that ship continuously and read progress straight off the board. Teams running formal sprints with burndown tracking should look at Jira or Linear.