The Burndown Chart

The burndown chart is a depiction of "work left to do" vs. time. On the vertical axis, the outstanding work (or backlog) is listed, and time is listed along the horizontal. The "Ideal Work" trendline represents the predicted rate of work completion calculated from the start date, end date, and initial work. The chart can be used to evaluate the current rate of work completion vs. an ideal one. In Aligned Elements, the start and end date of the Test Run is used as the Test Run period for the burndown chart. The work amount is calculated from the number of Test Cases in the Test Run. All Test Case Types are included in the burndown chart.

Note! All Test Cases are assumed to have an equal workload.

The burndown chart does not consider available resources. It only calculates the predicted daily work completion necessary to finish the Test Run on time given the workload and the stated period.

• Test Cases that are added to the Test Run increase the remaining work.

• Test Cases that are removed from the Test Run reduce the remaining work.

• Test Cases that are executed reduce the remaining work.

• Executed Test Cases that are invalidated (due to; e.g., changes in the Test Case) increase the remaining work since the Test Case needs to be performed again.

The starting point of the "Ideal Work" trendline is calculated from the first day containing any work during the Test Run period. If more work is added (Test Cases are added) after this day, the "Ideal Work" trendline is NOT adapted.

The time granularity used is a full day (24h); i.e., all activities are done before 23:59:59 on a given day. Only changes that span from one day to another are visible in the burndown chart. A Work item (Test Case) that has been added and completed (Executed) within the same day will not show up.

The burndown chart can be configured to omit Weekends as working days and adapt the chart timeline and ideal work line accordingly.