Linear Cycle Burndown Project

What is a Burndown Chart?

In simple terms, a burndown chart shows the amount of work remaining against an allotted amount of time. It is commonly used in agile software development as a productivity measurement. Software teams use it to visualize project progress and identify trends.

How does a Burndown Chart work?

Agile software teams work in short bursts called Sprints (Cycles in the context of Linear), often lasting one to two weeks. A set of predetermined issues is assigned to the cycle, and each issue is assigned an estimate that reflects its perceived difficulty.

A Burndown Chart tracks the teams progress over the cycle, showing two lines: Ideal and Actual. The Ideal line is a negative slope that begins at the total estimated effort (TEE) on the first day of the cycle and ends at 0 TEE on the final day. The Actual line is the real remaining effort and shifts up or down as project scope changes or issues are completed.

The x-axis charts time, and the y-axis is the estimated units (“Story Points”, Hours, etc.).

What does this chart demonstrate?

I created this project as part of a job application to Linear, a project management and issue tracking tool used in the software development world. The platform doesn’t currently offer Burndown as part of its product, which I believe is a deliberate philosophical decision.

I created my own workspace in Linear and assigned several issues to the current cycle, i.e., beginning today, ending in seven days. Next, I built a small Next.js app that integrates Linear’s TypeScript API. The app pulls the issue-tracking data from my Linear workspace and maps it to the line graph that’s shown below.

As I move issues in Linear from in progress to completed, the Actual line drops, moving closer to the Ideal line. In a real-world software project, the goal is to keep Actual as close to Ideal as possible.

Check out the Github Repo.