2.0.0.1 Burndown Chart Questions
Here's some text from a user concerning the burndown chart. I was
wondering if anyone from the reports team could share some insight into
the current workings of the chart.
Questions from user:
I've pasted the burdown for my current iteration. As you can see, the
red line goes from the most recent blue dot to 0. This conveys the
message that the remaining work must travel the red line to be on track.
However, I believe the red line (expected complete) should go from the
Y-axis to 0. The starting point on the Y-axis would be the total hours
defined for the tasks in the iteration (just above 1100 here). The
starting point might change as the total hours change (altering the
slope), but at least it reflects the "expected complete" line across the
full iteration. Essentialy, this red line would be the same as the red
line in the burnup report, just going in a different direction. Note
also (as I suggested at the tail end of my original writeup) that the
red line perhaps should not automatically adjust, but be up to the
product owner to "reset" should a new baseline expected complete be
desired.
The burndown chart referenced in the questions above has been attached.
Thank you,
-Garrett Rolfs
wondering if anyone from the reports team could share some insight into
the current workings of the chart.
Questions from user:
I've pasted the burdown for my current iteration. As you can see, the
red line goes from the most recent blue dot to 0. This conveys the
message that the remaining work must travel the red line to be on track.
However, I believe the red line (expected complete) should go from the
Y-axis to 0. The starting point on the Y-axis would be the total hours
defined for the tasks in the iteration (just above 1100 here). The
starting point might change as the total hours change (altering the
slope), but at least it reflects the "expected complete" line across the
full iteration. Essentialy, this red line would be the same as the red
line in the burnup report, just going in a different direction. Note
also (as I suggested at the tail end of my original writeup) that the
red line perhaps should not automatically adjust, but be up to the
product owner to "reset" should a new baseline expected complete be
desired.
The burndown chart referenced in the questions above has been attached.
Thank you,
-Garrett Rolfs
12 answers
On 11/13/2009 5:31 PM, Garrett Rolfs wrote:
Hi Garrett,
So I think you're suggested an "Ideal" line that stretches from the
beginning of the iteration to the end, using the maximum planned work as
a starting point. This is a good idea, and in fact we have something
similar to this for the burnup chart already. We should add it. If you
open an enhancement request for this, and assign it to the Reports team,
we'll see if we can take a look in the 3.0 timeframe.
Thanks,
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
Here's some text from a user concerning the burndown chart. I was
wondering if anyone from the reports team could share some insight into
the current workings of the chart.
Questions from user:
I've pasted the burdown for my current iteration. As you can see, the
red line goes from the most recent blue dot to 0. This conveys the
message that the remaining work must travel the red line to be on track.
However, I believe the red line (expected complete) should go from the
Y-axis to 0. The starting point on the Y-axis would be the total hours
defined for the tasks in the iteration (just above 1100 here). The
starting point might change as the total hours change (altering the
slope), but at least it reflects the "expected complete" line across the
full iteration. Essentialy, this red line would be the same as the red
line in the burnup report, just going in a different direction. Note
also (as I suggested at the tail end of my original writeup) that the
red line perhaps should not automatically adjust, but be up to the
product owner to "reset" should a new baseline expected complete be
desired.
The burndown chart referenced in the questions above has been attached.
Thank you,
-Garrett Rolfs
Hi Garrett,
So I think you're suggested an "Ideal" line that stretches from the
beginning of the iteration to the end, using the maximum planned work as
a starting point. This is a good idea, and in fact we have something
similar to this for the burnup chart already. We should add it. If you
open an enhancement request for this, and assign it to the Reports team,
we'll see if we can take a look in the 3.0 timeframe.
Thanks,
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
On 11/13/2009 5:31 PM, Garrett Rolfs wrote:
Here's some text from a user concerning the burndown chart. I was
wondering if anyone from the reports team could share some insight into
the current workings of the chart.
Questions from user:
I've pasted the burdown for my current iteration. As you can see, the
red line goes from the most recent blue dot to 0. This conveys the
message that the remaining work must travel the red line to be on track.
However, I believe the red line (expected complete) should go from the
Y-axis to 0. The starting point on the Y-axis would be the total hours
defined for the tasks in the iteration (just above 1100 here). The
starting point might change as the total hours change (altering the
slope), but at least it reflects the "expected complete" line across the
full iteration. Essentialy, this red line would be the same as the red
line in the burnup report, just going in a different direction. Note
also (as I suggested at the tail end of my original writeup) that the
red line perhaps should not automatically adjust, but be up to the
product owner to "reset" should a new baseline expected complete be
desired.
The burndown chart referenced in the questions above has been attached.
Thank you,
-Garrett Rolfs
Hi Garrett,
So I think you're suggested an "Ideal" line that stretches from the
beginning of the iteration to the end, using the maximum planned work as
a starting point. This is a good idea, and in fact we have something
similar to this for the burnup chart already. We should add it. If you
open an enhancement request for this, and assign it to the Reports team,
we'll see if we can take a look in the 3.0 timeframe.
Thanks,
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
Hi James, I was the originator of the problem that Garrett posted here. Being that the burndown is one of the preferred methods for reporting status in Agile, I would like you to reconsider changing this report sooner than later to show the Ideal burndown line. I think it is a defect for this report to show the expected complete line the way it is. As it currently is, there is nothing on the burndown chart that shows me at a glance if I am tracking well to the ideal progress for the iteration.
Nick Carbone
On 11/17/2009 6:52 PM, pizza wrote:
Hi James, I was the originator of the problem that Garrett posted
here. Being that the burndown is one of the preferred methods for
reporting status in Agile, I would like you to reconsider changing
this report sooner than later to show the Ideal burndown line. I
think it is a defect for this report to show the expected complete
line the way it is. As it currently is, there is nothing on the
burndown chart that shows me at a glance if I am tracking well to the
ideal progress for the iteration.
Nick Carbone
Hi Nick and Garrett,
So it turns out we've already made this change in the 3.0 stream. I
don't think it's going to be possible to get it in the 2.x stream, but
what I've done is attached the Burndown.rptdesign file here, as well as
shared.rptlibrary and shared.properties, and you can use them as is on
an existing 2.x installation. You just need to go to the properties of
the report template (in the rich client) and upload the new files.
Hope this helps.
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
jmoodywrote:
On 11/13/2009 5:31 PM, Garrett Rolfs wrote:
Here's some text from a user concerning the burndown chart. I was
wondering if anyone from the reports team could share some insight
into
the current workings of the chart.
Questions from user:
I've pasted the burdown for my current iteration. As you can see,
the
red line goes from the most recent blue dot to 0. This conveys the
message that the remaining work must travel the red line to be on
track.
However, I believe the red line (expected complete) should go from
the
Y-axis to 0. The starting point on the Y-axis would be the total
hours
defined for the tasks in the iteration (just above 1100 here). The
starting point might change as the total hours change (altering the
slope), but at least it reflects the "expected complete"
line across the
full iteration. Essentialy, this red line would be the same as the
red
line in the burnup report, just going in a different direction.
Note
also (as I suggested at the tail end of my original writeup) that
the
red line perhaps should not automatically adjust, but be up to the
product owner to "reset" should a new baseline expected
complete be
desired.
The burndown chart referenced in the questions above has been
attached.
Thank you,
-Garrett Rolfs
Hi Garrett,
So I think you're suggested an "Ideal" line that stretches
from the
beginning of the iteration to the end, using the maximum planned work
as
a starting point. This is a good idea, and in fact we have something
similar to this for the burnup chart already. We should add it. If you
open an enhancement request for this, and assign it to the Reports
team,
we'll see if we can take a look in the 3.0 timeframe.
Thanks,
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
Hi James, I was the originator of the problem that Garrett posted
here. Being that the burndown is one of the preferred methods for
reporting status in Agile, I would like you to reconsider changing
this report sooner than later to show the Ideal burndown line. I
think it is a defect for this report to show the expected complete
line the way it is. As it currently is, there is nothing on the
burndown chart that shows me at a glance if I am tracking well to the
ideal progress for the iteration.
Nick Carbone
Hi Nick and Garrett,
So it turns out we've already made this change in the 3.0 stream. I
don't think it's going to be possible to get it in the 2.x stream, but
what I've done is attached the Burndown.rptdesign file here, as well as
shared.rptlibrary and shared.properties, and you can use them as is on
an existing 2.x installation. You just need to go to the properties of
the report template (in the rich client) and upload the new files.
Hope this helps.
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
Here is a link to the report design file from Reports Central:
https://jazz.net/wiki/bin/viewfile/Main/ReportsCentral?rev=1;filename=Burndown.rptdesign
Thanks for the updated report design. We've installed it, and the user has the following comments:
The difference seems to be the change in color of the expected complete line (now green) and the addition of the ideal line (orange). There seems to be an error here since I would expect the ideal line to go to zero. I could live with this if the ideal line was fixed, though I still don't understand the point of the expected complete line (now green). To me, the "expected complete" is the "ideal" line. The plot of the remaining work shows clearly if we are ahead or behind when you compare against the ideal line. So, still seems some work is needed on this one.
Let me know if you'd like me to attach a screenshot.
Can you please attach a sample of the Burndown report and a sketch of how you would like it to look like?
Can you also please try the Burnup report which has yet another way of displaying the ideal line?
We have got many suggestions from customers about how they like the ideal lines and the way it is setup currently satisfies those requests. I guess it is hard to satisfy everybody :)
Can you also please try the Burnup report which has yet another way of displaying the ideal line?
We have got many suggestions from customers about how they like the ideal lines and the way it is setup currently satisfies those requests. I guess it is hard to satisfy everybody :)
Just to post a response to the last request...
For now, I think we're OK using the current sprint burndown report that we have. The more urgent need is for a better Release Burndown report, and I'm aware that updates in this area being considered for the next release. We've actually installed the Enhanced Burndown Report (1.1.1 and 1.3.0) and these look promising. These are available from the Release Burndown community site... https://csnext.raleigh.ibm.com/communities/service/html/allcommunities?tag=rtc.
For now, I think we're OK using the current sprint burndown report that we have. The more urgent need is for a better Release Burndown report, and I'm aware that updates in this area being considered for the next release. We've actually installed the Enhanced Burndown Report (1.1.1 and 1.3.0) and these look promising. These are available from the Release Burndown community site... https://csnext.raleigh.ibm.com/communities/service/html/allcommunities?tag=rtc.
On 5/28/2010 10:23 AM, pizza wrote:
We've actually made this enhanced release burndown report available on
our jazz.net wiki, and we are considering replacing our existing release
burndown report with this enhanced one in the next release.
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
Just to post a response to the last request...
For now, I think we're OK using the current sprint burndown report
that we have. The more urgent need is for a better Release Burndown
report, and I'm aware that updates in this area being considered for
the next release. We've actually installed the Enhanced Burndown
Report (1.1.1 and 1.3.0) and these look promising. These are
available from the Release Burndown community site...
https://csnext.raleigh.ibm.com/communities/service/html/allcommunities?tag=rtc.
We've actually made this enhanced release burndown report available on
our jazz.net wiki, and we are considering replacing our existing release
burndown report with this enhanced one in the next release.
james
RTC Reports Team Lead
Hello All,
I am trying to understand the calculations of the ideal line in the burndown chart in rtc 3.x. If I create the chart, but have no work items created at the beginning of the sprint, the ideal line starts at zero at time zero and ends at zero at sprint end, then after the first day, we add in 30 work items for the sprint, but the ideal line does recalculate. The planned work and the actual work show the new work items. I understand that the ideal line is just a straight slope from beginning to end, but it has to take into account the added work items, not just start from the initial value, in this case zero, so the report is flatline for the entire sprint, not very useful. If I add, 50 work items in day three of the sprint and it never recalculates the ideal line, then again not very useful. Maybe I am misreading the intent of this chart.
thank you,
Brad
I am trying to understand the calculations of the ideal line in the burndown chart in rtc 3.x. If I create the chart, but have no work items created at the beginning of the sprint, the ideal line starts at zero at time zero and ends at zero at sprint end, then after the first day, we add in 30 work items for the sprint, but the ideal line does recalculate. The planned work and the actual work show the new work items. I understand that the ideal line is just a straight slope from beginning to end, but it has to take into account the added work items, not just start from the initial value, in this case zero, so the report is flatline for the entire sprint, not very useful. If I add, 50 work items in day three of the sprint and it never recalculates the ideal line, then again not very useful. Maybe I am misreading the intent of this chart.
thank you,
Brad
page 1of 1 pagesof 2 pages