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What is the difference between burndown and burnup charts?

A burndown chart plots work remaining in a sprint, falling toward zero. A burnup chart plots work completed rising toward a total-scope line. Burndown answers 'will we finish on time?'; burnup also exposes scope change, because the total line moves when work is added — which burndown silently hides.

Burndown: the sprint speedometer

Day by day, remaining points drop; compare against the ideal diagonal and you know whether the sprint is on track. Its weakness is that if five points complete while five new points sneak in, the line goes flat and looks like the team stalled — scope creep masquerading as slowness.

Burnup: scope change made visible

Two lines: completed work climbing and total scope above it. When the scope line jumps mid-sprint everyone can see the commitment changed, and the conversation becomes 'we added work' instead of 'why are you slow'. For stakeholder communication, burnup is the more honest chart.

Which should a small team watch?

Inside a two-week sprint with protected scope, either is adequate; across sprints, velocity plus a completed-versus-committed view carries the same signal with far less ceremony. That is the model Flocci Projects uses — velocity trend, sprint progress, status distribution and workload. There is no in-sprint burndown line; Jira, Zoho Sprints, Shortcut Business and Plane Business all provide one if you need it.

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Related questions

Why does my burndown line go flat?

Either nothing reached Done — usually big stories moving slowly, so split them — or completed work is being offset by mid-sprint additions. Check scope first; it is the usual culprit and the easier one to fix.

Do I need burndown charts if I track velocity?

For small teams, velocity across sprints plus a glance at the board is usually enough. Burndown adds intra-sprint early warning, which matters more on longer sprints or larger teams where a week of drift is invisible day to day.

Should these charts use points or task counts?

Points, if you estimate — they weight the work. Task counts treat a typo fix and a data migration as equal, which distorts the line exactly when the distortion matters most.

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