How do I manage releases with Release Burnup?

Release Burnup helps you manage long-term projects and initiatives that span multiple sprints or teams. Unlike burndown charts that show remaining work, the burnup visualization shows accumulated completed work over time alongside scope changes, helping you forecast realistic completion dates for complex projects.

Finding your Release Burnup report

Navigate to the Reports section in Zenhub and select "Release Burnup" from the available reporting options. You'll need to select a specific release from the release dropdown at the top of the page, as each report focuses on a single release's progress.

The release selector shows your available releases with their current status. You can choose from:

• Active releases: Currently in progress with ongoing work and target dates
• Recently completed releases: Finished releases for retrospective analysis
• Future releases: Planned releases that haven't started yet

You'll also see filtering options for Labels and the option to "Hide predicted end date" if you want to focus on actual progress without forecasting.

Reading the burnup chart

The Release Burnup chart shows your project's progress over time with several key visual elements:

Blue filled area (Completed): Shows story points completed over time, displaying actual work delivered toward your release goals.

Light blue area (Estimated): Represents estimated work that's been added to the release but not yet completed.

Dark blue line (Total): Shows the total scope of your release, including both completed and remaining work. This line moves up when scope is added and down when scope is removed.

Orange dashed line (Desired): Represents your target completion trajectory based on the release's desired end date, showing the ideal pace needed to meet your deadline.

The vertical "Today" line marks the current date, helping you assess whether you're on track, ahead, or behind schedule relative to your desired completion date.

Understanding the progress metrics

Your Release Burnup displays three key metric cards showing different completion perspectives:

Total story points: Shows overall completion percentage (like "18%") with a breakdown of completed, remaining, and total story points (like "24 completed, 105 remaining, 129 total").

Estimated story points: Displays completion percentage for estimated work only (like "14%") with its own breakdown (like "16 completed, 98 remaining, 114 total").

Total issues and pull requests: Shows completion by discrete item count (like "27%") with issue-based metrics (like "10 completed, 26 remaining, 36 total").

These dual metrics help you understand whether story point complexity aligns with simple task completion and whether your estimates are tracking accurately with actual delivery.

Interpreting release health and forecasting

Use the burnup visualization to assess your release timeline and make informed decisions about scope, resources, or deadlines:

On-track indicators: When your completed work (blue area) is tracking closely with the desired trajectory (orange dashed line), your release is progressing well toward the target date.

Behind schedule patterns: When the completed work area is significantly below the desired line, your release may miss its target date. The gap between actual progress and desired trajectory indicates how much you're behind.

Scope creep visualization: When the total scope line (dark blue) increases over time, you're adding work to the release. Large scope increases can push out completion dates even if team velocity remains constant.

Forecasting accuracy: The predicted end date (shown on the right side) updates based on your current velocity and remaining scope. Compare this with your desired end date to assess timeline feasibility.

Using burnup data for release decisions

Transform Release Burnup insights into actionable release management decisions:

When you're behind schedule: If your completed work is tracking well below the desired line, examine whether the issue is scope, velocity, or timeline expectations. Use the detailed breakdown to identify specific work that could be moved to future releases.

When scope is growing: If the total scope line keeps trending upward, evaluate whether new work is essential for release goals or could be deferred. Uncontrolled scope growth is often the primary cause of release delays.

When completion percentages differ significantly: Large differences between story point and issue completion percentages might indicate estimation accuracy issues or work distribution problems that need addressing.

Using forecasted dates: The predicted end date gives you data-driven timeline expectations to communicate with stakeholders. When predicted dates significantly exceed desired dates, it's time for scope or resource discussions.

Customizing your release tracking

Configure your Release Burnup report to match your release management approach:

Label filtering: Use the Labels filter to focus on specific categories of work within your release, helping you understand progress patterns for different work types.

Predicted end date toggle: Use "Hide predicted end date" when you want to focus on actual progress without the forecasting element, useful during stakeholder presentations where you want to emphasize current status over projections.

Release editing: Click "Edit Release" to modify release scope, adjust target dates, or update release settings based on insights from the burnup data.

Date range consideration: Release Burnup automatically adjusts the time axis based on your release duration, but longer releases may show more compressed daily detail.

Managing scope changes and timeline adjustments

Use Release Burnup data to make informed decisions about release scope and timeline management:

Scope addition impact: When adding work to a release, observe how it affects the total scope line and predicted completion date. This visual feedback helps you make informed trade-off decisions.

Velocity-based planning: Use your team's actual completion rate (slope of the blue completed area) to assess whether remaining scope is achievable within desired timelines.

Milestone alignment: For releases spanning multiple sprints, ensure sprint planning aligns with release progress needs. The burnup helps identify when sprint work should prioritize release completion.

Stakeholder communication: Use the visual progression to communicate release status, scope changes, and timeline implications to stakeholders in clear, data-driven terms.

Release Burnup best practices

Regular monitoring: Review Release Burnup reports during sprint planning and release check-ins to ensure release work stays aligned with target dates.

Scope discipline: Use the visual impact of scope changes to maintain discipline around release scope. Every addition to the total line represents a potential delay.

Cross-team coordination: For releases involving multiple teams, use Release Burnup to coordinate work across teams and identify when dependencies might impact release timelines.

Historical analysis: Compare completed releases to understand patterns in scope growth, velocity consistency, and forecasting accuracy for improved future release planning.

Sharing release progress

Communicate release status effectively using Release Burnup visualizations:

Progress reporting: Use the completion percentages and visual progress to create clear status reports for executives and stakeholders.

Timeline discussions: The predicted versus desired end date comparison provides objective data for timeline and resource conversations.

Scope impact visualization: When stakeholders request additional scope, use the burnup chart to show the visual impact on timeline and completion forecasts.

FAQ

Q: What's the difference between Release Burnup and Sprint Burndown?
A: Release Burnup tracks long-term project progress across multiple sprints and shows accumulated completed work plus scope changes, while Sprint Burndown focuses on remaining work within a single sprint timeframe.

Q: Why does my release show different completion percentages for story points versus issues?
A: This typically indicates that your completed work has different complexity distribution than planned. If story point completion is lower, you may have completed easier tasks first, leaving more complex work remaining.

Q: How accurate is the predicted end date?
A: Prediction accuracy depends on consistent team velocity and stable scope. Early in releases or with frequent scope changes, predictions are less reliable. Accuracy improves as more work is completed and scope stabilizes.

Q: Should I add work to a release that's already in progress?
A: Consider the impact on timeline and team capacity. The burnup chart shows how scope additions affect predicted completion dates. Sometimes it's better to plan additional work for the next release rather than extending the current one.

Q: How do I handle releases that span multiple teams?
A: Release Burnup aggregates work across all teams contributing to the release. Ensure all relevant work is properly tagged and assigned to the release for accurate progress tracking.

Q: What should I do when the predicted end date significantly exceeds my desired date?
A: Evaluate three options: reduce scope (move non-essential work to future releases), add resources (if possible and effective), or adjust the target date. Use the burnup data to make informed trade-off decisions.