Tips on creating Burn down charts with Open Flash Chart 2

Question

I am going to be implementing a burn down chart for our project management system. It's going to be using Open Flash Chart 2

The system knows when the project starts and when it's estimated to be completed. It also knows the story points and how many hours they each take.

Users write each day how many hours were worked on each story point they are assigned.

From the charts I've looked at, they usually show what the status is each day. And the projected completion date.

1. Should I expect each day to be 8 hours or 8 hours * users working.
   Or should i just show hours remaining and let the chart normalize itself (since many users can be working on it in the beginning and few at the end (or the opposite)
2. Has anyone created a burn down chart in open flash chart 2 and do you have any other tips for creating something like this.

Answer 1

The decision about how many hours constitute the sprint and what duration it will take is something that should be done at the sprint planning stage. Obviously the number of resources you have and the available hours they have each day will determine the total duration. Once you get to creating and updating your burndown chart you’ll be showing the total hours remaining on each day as opposed to breaking out the number of hours per day or number of resources; this has no bearing on the effort remaining (although obviously relates to the ability to complete that effort within the sprint period).

The issue you’ve raised is one of velocity; you’ll need to decide whether you’re working at a constant pace (same available resources over sprint duration) or variable pace (more resources up front, for example). Most burndown charts show a “steady pace” line so you might just need to think about what this looks like in a variable velocity sprint. I’m afraid I can’t comment directly on Open Flash Charts but hopefully the other info above is of use.