A sprint burndown chart tracks the amount of remaining work in an agile sprint over time, plotted as a step (or line) series that descends as tasks are completed. A straight ideal-burndown guideline runs diagonally from the total committed scope on day one down to zero on the final day, giving the team an at-a-glance reference for whether they are ahead of or behind schedule. It is one of the most widely used project-management visualizations in software development, surfacing scope creep, stalled progress, and end-of-sprint risk early enough to act on.
""" anyplot.ai
burndown-sprint: Agile Sprint Burndown Chart
Library: plotly 6.8.0 | Python 3.13.13
Quality: 88/100 | Created: 2026-06-14
"""
import os
import sys
# Remove this script's directory from sys.path so 'plotly' resolves to the
# installed package and not this file (which shares the package name).
_script_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
sys.path = [p for p in sys.path if p != _script_dir]
import pandas as pd
import plotly.graph_objects as go
# Theme tokens
THEME = os.getenv("ANYPLOT_THEME", "light")
PAGE_BG = "#FAF8F1" if THEME == "light" else "#1A1A17"
ELEVATED_BG = "#FFFDF6" if THEME == "light" else "#242420"
INK = "#1A1A17" if THEME == "light" else "#F0EFE8"
INK_SOFT = "#4A4A44" if THEME == "light" else "#B8B7B0"
INK_MUTED = "#6B6A63" if THEME == "light" else "#A8A79F"
GRID = "rgba(26,26,23,0.15)" if THEME == "light" else "rgba(240,239,232,0.15)"
WEEKEND_FILL = "rgba(26,26,23,0.05)" if THEME == "light" else "rgba(240,239,232,0.05)"
# Imprint palette — first series always #009E73
BRAND = "#009E73" # actual remaining-work line
SCOPE_COLOR = "#AE3030" # scope change event (semantic red — risk/addition)
ANYPLOT_AMBER = "#DDCC77" # behind-schedule indicator (Imprint warning anchor)
# Data: 10-working-day sprint (Jan 6–17 2025), initial scope 40 SP
# Scope addition of +8 on Jan 9 (working day 4) causes remaining to jump
sprint_dates = pd.date_range("2025-01-06", "2025-01-17", freq="D").strftime("%Y-%m-%d").tolist()
remaining = [40, 36, 30, 38, 30, 30, 30, 22, 14, 8, 3, 0]
# Ideal burndown: straight reference from (sprint start, 40) to (sprint end, 0)
ideal_dates = [sprint_dates[0], sprint_dates[-1]]
ideal_values = [40, 0]
# Compute ideal at each sprint date for ahead/behind fill zones
n = len(sprint_dates)
ideal_at_dates = [40 * (1 - i / (n - 1)) for i in range(n)]
# Clip to create non-overlapping fill zones on each side of the ideal line
# ahead_y = actual clipped to ≤ ideal (fills the green zone below ideal)
# behind_y = actual clipped to ≥ ideal (fills the amber zone above ideal)
ahead_y = [min(r, idl) for r, idl in zip(remaining, ideal_at_dates, strict=True)]
behind_y = [max(r, idl) for r, idl in zip(remaining, ideal_at_dates, strict=True)]
AHEAD_FILL = "rgba(0,158,115,0.15)" # brand green tint — ahead of schedule
BEHIND_FILL = "rgba(221,204,119,0.28)" # amber tint — behind schedule
# Build closed polygons for toself fill (traces the boundary of each zone)
fill_x = sprint_dates + sprint_dates[::-1]
# Ahead zone: bottom=ahead_y, top=ideal (going forward then back)
ahead_fill_y = ahead_y + ideal_at_dates[::-1]
# Behind zone: bottom=ideal, top=behind_y (going forward then back)
behind_fill_y = behind_y + ideal_at_dates[::-1]
# Title (46 chars — under 67-char baseline, no fontsize scaling needed)
title = "burndown-sprint · python · plotly · anyplot.ai"
# Figure
fig = go.Figure()
# Weekend shading (Jan 11 Sat – Jan 12 Sun)
fig.add_vrect(
x0="2025-01-11",
x1="2025-01-13",
fillcolor=WEEKEND_FILL,
layer="below",
line_width=0,
annotation_text="Weekend",
annotation_position="top left",
annotation_font={"size": 9, "color": INK_MUTED},
)
# Ahead-of-schedule fill: closed green polygon between actual and ideal (actual < ideal)
fig.add_trace(
go.Scatter(
x=fill_x,
y=ahead_fill_y,
fill="toself",
fillcolor=AHEAD_FILL,
mode="none",
showlegend=False,
hoverinfo="none",
line={"color": "rgba(0,0,0,0)"},
)
)
# Behind-schedule fill: closed amber polygon between ideal and actual (actual > ideal)
fig.add_trace(
go.Scatter(
x=fill_x,
y=behind_fill_y,
fill="toself",
fillcolor=BEHIND_FILL,
mode="none",
showlegend=False,
hoverinfo="none",
line={"color": "rgba(0,0,0,0)"},
)
)
# Ideal burndown reference line (dashed, theme-adaptive muted)
fig.add_trace(
go.Scatter(
x=ideal_dates,
y=ideal_values,
mode="lines",
name="Ideal burndown",
line={"color": INK_SOFT, "width": 2, "dash": "dash"},
)
)
# Actual remaining work (step series — horizontal-then-vertical)
fig.add_trace(
go.Scatter(
x=sprint_dates,
y=remaining,
mode="lines+markers",
name="Remaining story points",
line={"color": BRAND, "width": 3.5, "shape": "hv"},
marker={"color": BRAND, "size": 8, "symbol": "circle"},
)
)
# Scope change event on Jan 9 (working day 4, +8 SP added)
fig.add_vline(
x="2025-01-09",
line_width=1.5,
line_dash="dot",
line_color=SCOPE_COLOR,
annotation_text="Scope +8 SP",
annotation_position="top right",
annotation_font={"size": 10, "color": SCOPE_COLOR},
annotation_bgcolor=ELEVATED_BG,
annotation_bordercolor=SCOPE_COLOR,
annotation_borderwidth=1,
)
# Layout
fig.update_layout(
autosize=False,
margin={"l": 80, "r": 40, "t": 80, "b": 60},
paper_bgcolor=PAGE_BG,
plot_bgcolor=PAGE_BG,
title={"text": title, "font": {"size": 16, "color": INK}, "x": 0, "xanchor": "left", "xref": "paper"},
xaxis={
"title": {"text": "Sprint Day", "font": {"size": 12, "color": INK}},
"tickfont": {"size": 10, "color": INK_SOFT},
"gridcolor": GRID,
"linecolor": INK_SOFT,
"zerolinecolor": INK_SOFT,
"tickformat": "%b %d",
"showgrid": False,
"showline": True,
"mirror": False,
},
yaxis={
"title": {"text": "Remaining Story Points", "font": {"size": 12, "color": INK}},
"tickfont": {"size": 10, "color": INK_SOFT},
"gridcolor": GRID,
"linecolor": INK_SOFT,
"zerolinecolor": GRID,
"rangemode": "tozero",
"showgrid": True,
"showline": True,
"mirror": False,
},
legend={
"bgcolor": ELEVATED_BG,
"borderwidth": 0,
"font": {"color": INK_SOFT, "size": 10},
"x": 0.97,
"y": 0.97,
"xanchor": "right",
"yanchor": "top",
},
font={"color": INK},
)
# Save
fig.write_image(f"plot-{THEME}.png", width=800, height=450, scale=4)
fig.write_html(f"plot-{THEME}.html", include_plotlyjs="cdn")
Part of Agile Sprint Burndown Chart on anyplot.ai.