An Overview of the Burndown Chart and its History

As a fighter pilot flying over North Vietnam, Jeff Sutherland didn’t think that his missions would one day lead him to be a co-founder of Scrum.

And yet, that is exactly what he is today. Part of the inspiration for the Burndown Chart, a vital Scrum component, came from his days as an aviator. During a particular trip, Sutherland was ordered on a reconnaissance flight, where he was needed to gather information.

For the duration of the trip, he had to use evasive maneuvers to avoid incoming attacks from below. He realized that there was just a small window available to get the information he needed; a photo. Later, this directly translated to the Burndown Chart, where everything must be perfect for a moment in order to move the agile product development process along.

The Burndown Chart is intended to keep an eye on all of the simultaneous agile development methods going on within a Scrum team. Like a fighter plane landing, there is no room for error, and the chart is intended to monitor such issues. For more information on this topic, watch the video from OpenView Labs featuring Jeff Sutherland.

Corey O'Loughlin
Corey O'Loughlin
Owner

Corey was a marketing analyst at OpenView from 2010 until 2011. Currently Corey is the Owner of Prep Obsessed and was previously the Marketing Manager at MarketingProfs.
You might also like ...
Onboarding
The Evolution of Miro's User Onboarding: Why Big Investments Didn't Stick, and Smart Iterations Won

Miro’s Kate Syuma shares how the company’s growth team iterated smart to improve the user onboarding journey for their popular collaborative platform.

by Kate Syuma
Product Management
Scaling Product Management: Strategic Investment Allocation
Editor’s note: This is the fifth part in a series on Scaling Product Management From Series B to IPO. Read...
by Scott Williamson
Product
How Wiz Built A Must-Have Category – And Hit $100M ARR in Only 18 Months
Every startup wants to be a category creator. But, how do you actually accomplish that? And is it always the...
by Kaitlyn Henry