Viewing the Issue Burndown Chart

Note that this page only applies if you are using the Classic Boards (which are no longer being actively developed; read more).

The GreenHopper Issue Burndown Chart works on the same principles as the hour burndown, but is based on the complete and incomplete issues. Used together with your context, you will have a powerful tool to help you see and analyse fluctuations in the issues for your version.

To view the issue burndown chart for your project version,

1. Log into JIRA.
2. Select Agile > Classic in the top navigation bar. Then select Classic Chart Board from the drop-down below the project name.
3. Select your project from the project dropdown (top left of the Chart Board above the 'Chart Board' dropdown), if it is not already selected. The 'Chart Board' will refresh with information for your project.
4. Using the Chart Board Navigation Bar, select the version whose chart you wish to view in the Version dropdown, then select 'Issue Burndown Chart' from the dropdown menu next to it. The issue burndown chart for the version will be displayed (see screenshot below).
   • The 'View Version' dropdown only includes versions which contain issues that belong to at least one unreleased Fix Version (and belong to a project that is enabled for GreenHopper).
   • The chart's 'Start Date' and 'End Date' are the Fix Version's dates defined on your Planning Board. If not defined on your Planning Board, the 'End Date' is the 'Release Date' defined in the JIRA version (see Managing Versions); or today's date, if not defined in JIRA.
   • You can toggle items in the chart on and off, by selecting or clearing their check boxes in the legend under the chart.
   • You can also print the chart by clicking the version's Actions menu in the Statistics Column and selecting 'Print Chart' from its dropdown. Please refer to the Chart Board - Statistics Column section for details.
5. The issue burndown chart provides you with the following information:
   • Remaining Values - Completed (solid line) — The number of incomplete issues remaining until the version release date.
     'Incomplete issues' are issues which have not entered the final stage (on the right-hand side) of the Task Board.
   • Remaining Values - Ongoing (dotted line) — The number of remaining issues completed since midnight on the current day. The gradient of this curve may change throughout this day.
   • Remaining Values - Trend (dashed line) — The projection of remaining issues to be completed until the version release date, based on the actual issue completion data from the start of the project.
   • Guideline (solid line) — The ideal burndown. This is computed with the remaining estimates, not the original estimates of the issues at the version's start date. Hence, this calculation makes the guideline slope more accurate and precise.
   • New issues (solid line) — The number of new issues created.
   • Required daily burndown rate (solid line) — The daily rate of issue completion required to attain your goal.
   • Required daily burndown rate - Ongoing (dotted line) — The daily rate of issue completion required to attain your goal, since midnight on the current day. The gradient of this curve may change throughout this day.

Tip: If you set up a version to be the parent version of a number of child versions, you will be able to view the burndowns of the parent and child version merged into one. This can be useful for providing a visual overview of a release with multiple iterations.

Screenshot: Issue Burndown Chart