What does a sprint burndown chart effectively display?

A sprint burndown chart is a visual tool used in Scrum to track the amount of work remaining in a Sprint over time. The primary function of the chart is to provide an estimate of the total work remaining for the duration of the Sprint. It typically represents the remaining effort (often measured in story points or hours) on the Y-axis against the time remaining in the Sprint on the X-axis. As work is completed, the line on the chart slopes downward, indicating that the team is burndown their workload.

This visualization helps teams monitor their progress toward completing the Sprint Goal and assists in predicting whether they will meet their commitments by the end of the Sprint. It can also prompt discussions around any obstacles the team may face, enabling proactive adjustments if the team is falling behind.

In contrast, while a count of completed tasks and improvements over time provide useful information in their own right, they do not convey the real-time projection and management of the remaining workload as effectively as the burndown chart does. The total number of team members involved is not relevant to the graphical representation of work remaining and thus does not align with the core function of the burndown chart.