Release Burndown Burnup Chart Gadget

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53LYui0k5_E

Overview

This gadget displays the burnup and/or burndown chart for a project release represented by a Jira issue filter. The calculation can be done by Story Points, Original Time Estimate, Issue Count or by any numerical custom field, relying on historical data for each issue within the specified filter. Additionally, you have the option to include sub-tasks in the calculation. The series to be displayed are configurable, thus allowing you to use the gadget as burndown, burnup or both, providing a flexible tool to monitor the agile progress of your project release.

Use this gadget to track the progress of your project release in an agile manner.

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This gadget can also make a forecast (prediction) about when the release will be finished. How is the forecast made? First, the gadget determines the current velocity of your team based on the work done in the previous completed time intervals (Yesterday’s Weather). Then, it determines how many days are necessary to finish the current remaining work, assuming that your velocity remains the same, and it draws the dashed line accordingly to the determined release end date.

Optionally, you can choose to display the release milestones, such as at 25%, 50%, or 75% of the release timeframe. A past milestone will be displayed in red if the Remaining work at that time was higher than Ideal Burndown, or in green if it was lower, thus indicating if the milestone was reached or not.

Configuration

The settings of this gadget are divided in 2 tabs:

  • Data tab - contains the required settings of the gadget, such as title or data source

  • More Settings tab - contains the optional settings, such as card colors

Data tab

On this tab you can configure the required settings of the gadget.

 

Setting

Description

Setting

Description

Gadget Title

Choose what to display in the title bar of the gadget.

Data Source

Select the type of Data Source used by the gadget:

  • A Saved filter that contains the Jira issues in your release (the scope of your project release). Make sure that the specified filter is shared if you want other people to visualize the dashboard.

  • A JQL query that returns the issues you want to be processed by the gadget.

Release Start Date

The start date of your release.

Release End Date

The end date of your release.

Intervals of

Indicates the time interval for calculating the chart data. If you do Agile development, this should be set according to the length of your sprints or iterations.

"Done" means

Specify how to consider the issue as being "done". If you do Agile development, you should select the Agile board of your team.

Calculate by

Specify on which criteria the calculation to be performed. You can choose between:

  • Story Points - the default value; use this option if the issues are estimated in Story Points. If the issues are from team-managed projects (aka next-gen projects), select Story Point Estimate instead.

  • Original Time Estimate - use this if you use time estimates; calculation will be done in hours. The Scope will be calculated as the sum of the Original Estimate field of all the issues from the filter, and each time an issue is marked as done, the Burned and Remaining lines will increase/decrease with the amount of hours that is set at Original Estimate for that issue. This option does not consider the time spent (work logged).

  • Time Remaining & Time Spent - use this option if you use time estimates and your team logs the worked time on a daily basis; calculation will be done in hours. The Scope will be calculated as the sum of the Time Spent and Time Remaining of all the issues from the filter. Burned is calculated as the sum of Time Spent of all the issues from the filter plus the sum of Time Remaining of all the issues from the filter that are done. Remaining is calculated as Scope minus Burned. This option does not consider the Original Estimate field.

  • Issue Count - use this if you want the calculation to be done by the number of issues.

  • Other numerical custom fields defined in your Jira instance - pickup the numerical custom field that you use to track or estimate the issues.

Series to Display

Choose what series to display in the chart. You can select one or more options:
Ideal Burndown - the ideal line specific to a burndown chart. It indicates how the remaining work should evolve in the ideal case. It is calculated based on Scope (see below).
Ideal Burnup - the ideal line specific to a burnup chart. It shows how the done (burned) work should evolve in the ideal case. It is calculated based on Scope (see below).
Remaining - the total amount of remaining work at that time; it is specific to the burndown chart.
Burned - the total amount of work done at that time; it is specific to the burnup chart.
Scope - represents the current release goal - the total amount of work to be done in the release at that time. Select this if you want to see the changes in the release scope over time.
Forecast Burndown - makes a forecast (prediction) about when the remaining work is finished and displays it as a dashed line between the start of the release and the estimated release end date.
Forecast Remaining - makes a forecast (prediction) about when the remaining work is finished and displays it as a dashed line between the end of the Remaining line and the estimated release end date.
Forecast Burned - makes a forecast (prediction) about when the remaining work is finished and displays it as a dashed line between the end of the Burned line and the estimated release end date.

Tips
To configure the gadget as a "classic" burndown chart, select only the Ideal Burndown and Remaining series.
To configure the gadget as a "classic" burnup chart, select only the Ideal Burnup and Burned series.

More Settings tab

On this tab you can configure the optional settings of the gadget.

Setting

Description

Setting

Description

Forecast based on:

Specifies how the forecast about release end-date is made. It takes effect over the Forecast Burndown and Forecast Remaining series in case you choose to display any of them. You can choose between:
The average velocity of all the completed intervals - the forecast will be made based on the average velocity of all the previous completed intervals
The average velocity of the last? intervals - the forecast will be made based on the average velocity of the last completed intervals, as specified
A fixed velocity of... - the forecast will be made based on the fixed velocity that you introduce manually

Calculate the ideal series based on

Choose how the ideal series will be calculated. The current scope means that the Ideal Burndown line starts from a value that is the same as the current (latest) value of the Scope series, while The initial scope means that the Ideal Burndown line starts from a value that is the same as the value of the Scope series at the start of the release. You can also choose A fix scope value of and specify a number representing the total work estimate of the release. This third option is useful when you have a rough estimate of the total work but have not yet added all the corresponding issues or estimates in Jira.

Show legend

Check this if you want the chart legend to be displayed.

Display milestones

Check this option and enter the values (percentages of the planned release duration) corresponding to the milestones to be displayed. A past milestone will be displayed in red if the Remaining work at that time was higher than Ideal Burndown, or in green if it was lower, thus indicating if the milestone was reached or not. The future milestones are displayed in gray.

Continue to display data after release end date

Check this option if you want the chart to still display data even if the release date has passed. When this option is checked, the chart lines Scope, Remaining, Burned and forecast will continue after the release end date.

Display horizontal gridlines

Check this option if you want the chart to display gridlines for the vertical axis.

Enable scroll zoom

Check this if you want to be able to zoom in while scrolling with the mouse wheel over the chart.

Refresh cached data at next display

This gadget uses data caching for faster display, which means that some resulting data after processing is saved and reused the next time the gadget is loaded. If you check it, the cache of the gadget will be cleared and recreated on the next reload. This setting is not persistent.

Colors tab

Setting

Description

Setting

Description

Automatically assign colors

Check this if you want the chart to automatically assign colors for the series.

Custom colors

Select any custom color you want the series to be displayed on by either entering the color's hexadecimal code or picking a color.

You can also use the Copy and Import buttons to copy and import the color configuration to gadgets of the same type.

 

Related blog articles

The following blog articles provide more information on how to use this gadget.