Everything – even time is trackable in the project world. From detecting material shortages early on in the product development process to catching potential sources of delays or bottlenecks in a Gantt calendar, using the right management tools can help you stick to key project deadlines.
The truth is, tracking progress against time becomes a lot easier (and frankly, more fun!) with visual tools like Kanban boards & Burndown charts that you can use to stay on top of your deadlines.
A Burndown Chart tells you how much work you have left (usually in task units or story points) against the time you have left to finish a project, phase, milestone or sprint. It is particularly handy if you are managing a long-drawn, complex project, such as a commercial construction project.
We will discuss more about sprints and how Burndown charts are used by SCRUM & Agile professionals later in this post.
Now, let’s break down a typical Burndown chart:
- The X-axis) shows the time allocated for the sprint or the overall project duration.
- The Y-axis shows the amount of work remaining.
- The top-left corner marks the starting point of the project or sprint, while the bottom-right corner represents its completion.
5-step Guide to Our Template
We have deliberately designed our template to be as simple as possible. Even if you are a project newbie, or simply don’t want to pay extra in online software fees – our easy-to-use Excel tool gets the job done for you just as well!
Here’s a step-by-step guide to using our template:
Step 1: Tailor me!
Let’s start with the basics. Add your project name & ID or version, if applicable. Now, identify a sponsor (any individual or organization financing the project) as well as the lead person responsible for overseeing overall execution.
Step 2: Place your project in a timeframe
Remember, without a viable & realistic timeframe – your project will never come to a happy closeout or deliver on promised outcomes. That’s why choosing the right duration matters, especially for budgeting purposes, as longer durations often mean higher costs. Specify these start and end dates at the top.
Tip:
If you want to be time-efficient, why not use a live Gantt-style project timeline made easy with our free, fully automated Excel template!
Step 3: Compare story points: planned vs. actual
If you want to know how well on track you are, you need to compare your planned progress levels to your actual ones. By putting your planned and actual story points right next to each other, it’s possible to gauge how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go.
Based on the daily rates of progress you add, our templates instantly create a simple line graph for you to provide visual insights into your project performance & team dynamics.
Step 4: Update & inform!
Update this spreadsheet in real time, preferably at the end of each business day. Depending on your reporting guidelines, you can also integrate the Burndown Chart in your project Status Reports to give stakeholders a more telescopic view of what’s happening every day, week, month, etc.
How a Burndown Chart Equips You as a PMO Professional
- Path Correction: Instantly tells you if you need to modify the scope, budget, or timeline to meet your goals on time.
- Reporting: Helps you report back to stakeholders (financial or non-financial) with a more concrete picture of daily progress levels
- Motivating & Mobilizing Teams: Arms you with the right information to push teams to put in more hours, show more dedication, or use better technologies & processes to achieve outcomes faster!
- Get An Insider’s View: Snag yourself a peek into team dynamics. For example, if your teams consistently miss deadlines, it might be a sign that they are overworked. If they always finish tasks early, it might be a sign that they aren’t committing to enough work during sprint planning.
Speaking of…
What are Sprints?
In project speak, sprints are short, boxed time slots devoted to a set amount of work. They are particularly common for Scrum teams who work in ‘sprints’ to concentrate on specific, manageable goals. Working in sprints is also known to encourage a more continuous feedback loop while lowering project fatigue.
You can think of a sprint like a mini-project within a larger project — focused, timed, and geared toward producing a clear output by the end.
The bottom line is, whether you’re a Scrum Master or an Agile professional, using a Burndown Chart allows you to:
- Determine if your project is on track
- Focus on outstanding work instead of deadlines for each task
- Detect resource or budget issues early on
- Manage scope creep
- Spot potential delays or bottlenecks
- Monitor & track completion down to the task level
- Visualize project progress over time
Summary
A Burndown Chart Template is a useful graphical tool used in project management circles to depict the progress of work completed over time. A template like ours clearly tells you whether you are on track to finish your work within the set time frame. It can be a particularly handy tool for identifying potential delays & resource issues early on, managing scope changes, and making necessary tweaks to stay on schedule. The primary users of a burndown chart template are project managers, Scrum Masters & Agile teams who use it to assess progress and meet project deadlines.
