Skip to main content

Is there an owner for the burn-down chart? who is responsible for it?

Last post 08:48 pm February 15, 2018 by Mike Marfitt-Smith
5 replies
03:23 am February 13, 2018

07:03 am February 14, 2018

Who uses the Burndown Chart? What purpose does it serve?

The answers to those two questions should point you in the right direction ;-)


07:41 am February 14, 2018

When i think about it,i point towards the conclusion that:

Since it used for sprint tracking, so it would be tracked by development team.

But am wondering if the product owner uses it for project tracking, in that case wouldnt it be product owner? Have i gotten some concept wrong here.. ?


04:27 pm February 14, 2018

The role of a scrum master is to enable and support the team and the product owner in working in an agile way. The scrum master is there to ensure that everyone knows how to do their work according to the agile manifesto, the agile principles and the Scrum guide. Therefore the scrum master is only interested in Burndown charts from a methodology point of view, not from a progress of work point of view.

Surprisingly often though, I’ve seen projects where the scrum master actually drew Sprint Burndown charts. If that is the case in your project, this needs to be addressed.

Scrum masters and product owners are not the ideal roles to draw the Sprint Burndown chart. The team is in a much better position to do this because it knows best the progress of work that is being done. At least it should, otherwise the scrum master might have a subject to talk about with the team. The team is implementing the scope that was defined by the product owner. With that the team knows exactly if implementation is going the way it was planned or if obstacles came up which cause delays. To make this visible is the purpose of the Sprint Burndown chart.

All roles work together regarding the Sprint Burndown chart. You have a team that owns the Sprint Burndown chart and is responsible of making the progress of work transparent to stakeholders. Product owners use the Sprint Burndown chart to determine whether the project is on schedule or if the release plan needs to be updated. In case the team or the product owner struggles with their role and their responsibilities, the scrum master is there to support, coach or remind people of the rules that are underlying agile software development.

Another benefit that comes when teams are conscious that they own the Sprint Burndown chart and draw it. This is often the first step towards self-organisation, which is the desired state of teams in a Scrum context.

I hope this clarify your question.


07:17 am February 15, 2018

Since it used for sprint tracking, so it would be tracked by development team.

That would be my view of the matter as well. And, afaik, that is the general concensus within the Scrum Community.

But am wondering if the product owner uses it for project tracking, in that case wouldnt it be product owner? Have i gotten some concept wrong here.. ?

Is some chart really the best way for the PO to be informed on Sprint Progress?


11:52 am February 15, 2018

I got this from the scrum guide...

Monitoring Sprint Progress

At any point in time in a Sprint, the total work remaining in the Sprint Backlog can be summed. The Development Team tracks this total work remaining at least for every Daily Scrum to project the likelihood of achieving the Sprint Goal. By tracking the remaining work throughout the Sprint, the Development Team can manage its progress.

...................................

In practice this results from dev logging time spent and hopefully a tool will produce the burndown projection.

Ideally its going to be available for anyone to see. If the dev team hide it from others then I would expect the SM and PO at least to quickly ask how they can get it.

 


By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.