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 3 tabs:

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

  • Series tab - lets you choose what series (lines) to display in the chart

  • Forecast tab - contains settings for calculating the forecast lines

  • More Settings tab - contains the optional settings

  • Colors tab - lets you customize the color of the lines displayed in the chart

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.

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 tab

On this tab you can choose what series to display in the chart.

Setting

Description

Setting

Description

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 Scope - makes a forecast (prediction) about the scope and displays it as a dashed line between the end of the Scope line and the release end date.

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.

The calculation of forecast lines is based on the settings in the Forecast tab.

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.

Tips & Tricks

  • 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.

  • To configure it as an epic burndown / burnup chart configure the gadget to use a filter or JQL that returns the issues from your epic(s): parentEpic in (EPIC-1, EPIC-2 …)

Forecast tab

On this tab you can define how the forecast lines are calculated.

Setting

Description

Setting

Description

End date forecast based on

Specify how the end date forecast is calculated.

The average velocity of all the completed intervals - by choosing this option the end date forecast will be calculated based on the average velocity (average amount of work completed) of all the completed time intervals from the chart.

The average velocity of the last x intervals - by choosing this option the scope forecast will be calculated based on the average velocity (average amount of work completed) of the most recent x completed time intervals from the chart.

A fixed velocity of … - by choosing this option the scope forecast will be calculated based on a fixed velocity, entered manually.

These settings affect all the forecast series, except Forecast Scope.

Consider the scope forecast when making the end date forecast

By checking this option, the calculation of the end date forecast will also take into account the scope forecast, not just the velocity.

Scope forecast based on

Specify how the scope forecast is calculated.

The average scope changes of all the completed intervals - by choosing this option the scope forecast will be calculated based on the average scope change ratio of all the completed time intervals from the chart.

The average scope changes of the last x intervals - by choosing this option the scope forecast will be calculated based on the average scope change ratio of the most recent x completed time intervals from the chart.

A fixed scope change ratio of … - by choosing this option the scope forecast will be calculated based on a fixed change scope ratio, entered manually.

More Settings tab

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

Setting

Description

Setting

Description

"Done" means

Specify how the gadget should consider issues as done when determining the work completed.

The default option is Issue status has the category done, which means that the issue is considered done if it has reached a “done” category status (such as Resolved, Closed, Done or any other green-colored status of Jira).

Choose Issue is in last column of the selected board and select an agile board if you want to consider issues as done when they reach the last column of the board or, more exactly, a status that is mapped to the last board column.

Choose Issue is in one of these statuses, and then select one or more workflow statuses, to consider issues as done when they reach one of these custom statuses.

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

On this tab you can customize the color of the lines displayed in the chart.

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.