Milestone Burndown

Monitor milestone completion rates and remaining work to stay on track with project deadlines.

Milestone Burndown helps you visualize progress toward milestone completion by showing completed versus remaining work over time. This report combines story point tracking with issue completion metrics to give you a complete picture of milestone progress and deadline feasibility.

Accessing the report

Navigate to Reports in the left sidebar and select Milestone Burndown. Select a specific milestone from the dropdown at the top — each report focuses on a single milestone's progress. You can choose from active milestones, recently closed milestones for retrospective analysis, or overdue milestones that need attention.

Reading the burndown chart

Ideal line shows the steady pace needed to finish milestone work by the due date. Remaining line shows actual remaining work over time. When it tracks below the ideal line, you're ahead of schedule; above it, you're behind. Grey shaded areas mark weekends to help you account for non-working days.

The chart automatically updates as issues move through Work Tracker pipelines.

Understanding the progress metrics

Milestone Burndown shows completion percentages for both story points and issue counts. These dual metrics help you understand whether complexity-weighted work aligns with simple task completion. Scroll to the bottom of the report to see the detailed breakdown of remaining versus completed work by count and story points.

Interpreting milestone health

When your remaining work line closely follows or stays below the ideal line, your milestone is progressing well. When it tracks significantly above the ideal line, you face completion risks from overcommitment, unexpected complexity, or capacity constraints.

Upward slope changes indicate accelerating progress; flattening slopes suggest slowing velocity requiring intervention. When story point and issue completion percentages differ significantly, this typically indicates estimation accuracy issues — review the remaining work breakdown to identify the cause.

Customizing the report

Configure which Work Tracker pipelines count as completed to ensure the burndown reflects your team's definition of done. Milestones spanning multiple repositories automatically aggregate progress across all included repositories. Non-estimated issues receive average story point values based on other milestone work, ensuring all issues contribute to progress calculations.

FAQ

Q: What's the difference between Milestone Burndown and Sprint Burndown?
A: Milestone Burndown tracks progress toward longer-term milestone completion deadlines spanning multiple sprints. Sprint Burndown focuses on a single sprint timeframe. Milestones are longer-term commitments with more scope flexibility.

Q: How does Milestone Burndown handle issues without story point estimates?
A: Non-estimated issues automatically receive average story point values based on other estimated milestone work, ensuring all issues contribute to progress tracking.

Q: Can I use Milestone Burndown for cross-repository projects?
A: Yes. Milestones spanning multiple repositories automatically aggregate progress across all repositories.

Q: Why might story point and issue completion percentages differ significantly?
A: Large differences typically indicate estimation accuracy issues or work distribution patterns. Review the remaining work breakdown to identify specific causes.

Q: Should I adjust milestone deadlines when behind schedule?
A: Consider remaining work complexity, team capacity, milestone importance, and stakeholder expectations. Sometimes scope reduction is more appropriate than timeline extension.