HacknPlan provides a burndown chart that reflects the estimated and actual progress of a sprint board in a graphical way, based on the estimated cost (points or time) and the measurable progress (when work items are closed or effort is logged) over the time period defined by the start and due/closing dates of the board.

Note: The burndown chart is available for Studio subscriptions only.

You can find the burndown chart section at Reports → Burndown chart on the left menu of your project. On the header, there are several options for configuring the chart view:

• Mode: The value that will be used to generate the chart. The options are:
  • Cost: The estimated and logged cost of the work items on the board, in time or points depending on your project configuration. The starting point is based on the sum of the estimations of all the items on the board at the starting date. As time passes, the line can go up if you increase estimations of existing work items or add new ones to the board in the middle of the sprint, or down as you log work on items, close them or if they are removed from the board.
  • Items: The number of open vs closed work items on the board. The starting point is based on the number of open items at the starting date. As time passes, the line can go up if you add items to the board, or down as items are closed or moved out of the board.
  • Both: A combination of the two previous modes in the same chart.
• Board: The selected board for the burndown chart to be rendered. 

The ideal line

The ideal line of the burndown chart, in grey color, represents the optimal way to go from the initial estimation to 0 in the time span defined by the start and due dates of the sprint board. It’s very useful to see how the sprint is going at a glance, by comparing it to the progress line: if the progress line is above the ideal line, it means you’re behind; if the progress line is under the ideal line, you’re ahead. However, bear in mind that being ahead means you overestimated work items in the first place and will probably need to add more items to the sprint board in the middle of it to compensate (unless other items are underestimated and there is a balance). From the reliability point of view (which should be every team’s goal), it’s always best to be as closest to the ideal line as possible, it means your estimations were accurate.

Important: If the ideal line is not properly drawn, it might indicate the start date of the board was set before the items on the board were in place or properly estimated. Consider moving the start date to the point where the sprint is ready.

Also, the ideal line takes into account the timetable of your project to better represent it, not counting weekends and other days off in the calculation. You can configure the timetable of your project from the Administration → Timetable section.