Ah yes, the burn up chart.
The agile metric that is often misidentified as its bigger and more popular cousin, the burndown chart; "Burn up charts? Did you mean burndown charts?".
No, we did mean burn up charts. The metric, which shows progress upwards instead of downwards, as you complete work. When created and explained once, most people and teams find the burn up chart effective.
Let's uncover the burn up chart, as an agile metric together.
What is a burn up chart?
As always, I will first provide a relatable scenario to explain what burn up charts are. This gives you foundational context before presenting a one-sentence definition. The scenario is everyone's favourite act of relocating into a new home.
Imagine you are moving into a new home in one week. You have already packed all your items into boxes, and now you have 20 boxes ready to move. Since you have other things going on in that week, you decide to move the boxes throughout the week. Some days, you're too tired to move boxes, while other days, you move as many boxes as you can.
Each box you move is a step closer to completing your goal of relocating to your new home. But instead of focusing on how much is left, you are tracking how much work you have finished. Every box that you move adds to your progress. As the week goes on, you will see the total number of boxes you have moved steadily rise until all 20 boxes have moved into your new home.
If we visualized this on a chart, it would show an upward trend as you complete more work. Each box moved adds to the total progress. This growing line represents the "burning up" of effort toward your goal, which is why it is called a burn up chart.
The takeaway is to remember that the burn up chart shows how many boxes you have moved to your new home, while a burndown chart shows you how many are left in your previous home. Therfore, the burn up chart is a graph that visually tracks the cumulative work completed over time. It shows a clear upward trend as tasks are finished, much like moving boxes one by one until you have completed your move.
Let's try to create a simple, yet memorable definition.
Simple definition of a burn up chart
A burn up chart is a graph that tracks work over time, showing an upward trend as tasks are completed and progress is made.
