Targets, progress and status
Burnup chart
Tracks cumulative completed work alongside total scope to show progress and scope changes.
- Chart
- Progress
- Trend over time
What it answers
How much work is complete relative to current scope?
- Shape
- Completed-work and scope lines
- What it shows
- Progress and scope movement.
Example
The question
How much work is done compared with the growing scope?
Completed work and total scope, release 3 (story points)
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Projects where scope changes need to remain visible.
Avoid it when
When completed values are not cumulative or units differ.
How to read it
Compare cumulative completion with total-scope lines.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Date: date; CompletedWork: nonnegative number; TotalScope: nonnegative number
- One row is
- One date with cumulative completion and current scope. What is the grain?
- Rules
- CompletedWork is cumulative; TotalScope is the current scope at that date.
- Optional
- Alternatively calculate cumulative completion from dated completion events.
- Preparation
- Validate the input grain and missing values. CompletedWork is cumulative; TotalScope is the current scope at that date.
- Units
- Completed work is cumulative; completion share divides by current scope, whose changes must remain visible.
Worked example
Completed 0,15,30; scope 100,100,110. At the final date 30/110=27.3% is complete.
| Date | CompletedWork | TotalScope |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-01 | 0 | 100 |
| 2026-01-02 | 15 | 100 |
| 2026-01-03 | 30 | 110 |