Burndown Chart Calculator
Calculate the ideal remaining work and daily burn rate for an agile sprint to keep your team on track.
How to use this tool
- Enter total story points in sprint, sprint length, current sprint day and points completed so far in the fields above.
- Results update instantly as you type — or click Calculate.
- Read your ideal remaining (today) and the full breakdown beneath it.
⚠ This tool provides general estimates for education only and is not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures may not reflect your situation — verify with a qualified professional.
Formula
Daily Burn Rate = Total Points / Sprint Days
Ideal Remaining = Total Points − (Daily Burn Rate × Current Day)
Actual Remaining = Total Points − Points Completed
Variance = Ideal Remaining − Actual Remaining (positive = ahead of schedule)
How it works
The ideal burndown assumes a constant, linear reduction in remaining work from sprint day zero (all points remaining) to the final day (zero points remaining). This linear ideal line is the standard reference used in Scrum and Kanban burndown charts.
A positive variance means the team has completed more work than the ideal pace requires (ahead of schedule); a negative variance means the team is behind. This calculator does not account for scope changes mid-sprint.
Worked example
100-point sprint on day 4
- Daily Burn Rate = 100 pts / 10 days = 10 pts/day
- Ideal Remaining on day 4 = 100 − (10 × 4) = 100 − 40 = 60 pts
- Actual Remaining = 100 − 35 completed = 65 pts
- Variance = 60 − 65 = −5 pts (5 points behind schedule)
The team is 5 story points behind the ideal burndown pace on day 4.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Counting story points as completed before QA and acceptance are done, making the burndown look faster than actual progress.
- Treating the ideal line as a daily quota — teams should track the trend over several days, not panic if one day's actual line sits above the ideal.
- Adding new scope mid-sprint without resetting or annotating the total, which makes the burndown appear to reverse upward and confuses stakeholders.
Key terms
- Story points
- A unit used in agile estimation to measure the relative complexity and effort of a work item.
- Burn rate
- The average number of story points completed per day during a sprint.
- Ideal burndown line
- A straight line from total points at day 0 to zero points at the last day of the sprint, representing perfect linear progress.
- Variance
- The difference between ideal remaining work and actual remaining work; positive means ahead of schedule.
- Sprint
- A fixed-length iteration in agile development, typically 1–4 weeks, during which a set of work items are completed.
Frequently asked questions
- What does it mean if the burndown line is above the ideal line?
- The team is burning down work more slowly than planned and is at risk of not completing the sprint. Causes include scope creep, underestimation, or blocked items that need to be resolved.
- Should the burndown track story points or hours?
- Both are used. Story points are more common in Scrum and measure relative complexity. Hours can be more precise for capacity planning. Be consistent within a team.
- What does a flat burndown line indicate?
- No work is being completed and marked done. Common causes: items are in progress but not finished, blocked by external dependencies, or the team is doing work not tracked on the board.