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: plotnine 0.15.7 | Python 3.13.13
Quality: 91/100 | Created: 2026-06-14
"""
import sys
sys.path.pop(0) # prevent this file (plotnine.py) from shadowing the plotnine library
import os
import pandas as pd
from plotnine import (
aes,
annotate,
coord_cartesian,
element_blank,
element_line,
element_rect,
element_text,
geom_line,
geom_rect,
geom_ribbon,
geom_step,
geom_vline,
ggplot,
labs,
scale_color_manual,
scale_x_continuous,
scale_y_continuous,
theme,
theme_minimal,
)
# Theme tokens — Imprint palette chrome
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"
IMPRINT_PALETTE = ["#009E73", "#C475FD", "#4467A3", "#BD8233", "#AE3030", "#2ABCCD", "#954477", "#99B314"]
ANYPLOT_AMBER = "#DDCC77"
# Sprint data: 10 working days (Jan 8–19 2024), days 0–11 include weekends
# Day 4 (Jan 12, Fri): scope +8 pushes remaining up from expected ~25 to 33
# Days 5–6 (Jan 13–14, Sat–Sun): weekend, remaining stays flat
days = list(range(12))
remaining = [40, 36, 33, 29, 33, 33, 33, 27, 21, 15, 8, 0]
ideal = [round(40 * (1 - d / 11), 2) for d in range(12)]
actual_df = pd.DataFrame({"day": days, "value": remaining, "series": "Actual Remaining"})
ideal_df = pd.DataFrame({"day": days, "value": ideal, "series": "Ideal Burndown"})
weekend_df = pd.DataFrame({"xmin": [4.5], "xmax": [6.5], "ymin": [-2.0], "ymax": [50.0]})
# Behind/ahead-of-schedule ribbon: fills gap between actual and ideal lines
ribbon_df = pd.DataFrame(
{
"day": days,
"ymin": [min(a, i) for a, i in zip(remaining, ideal, strict=True)],
"ymax": [max(a, i) for a, i in zip(remaining, ideal, strict=True)],
}
)
x_breaks = [0, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11]
x_labels = ["Jan 8\n(Mon)", "Jan 10\n(Wed)", "Jan 12\n(Fri)", "Jan 15\n(Mon)", "Jan 17\n(Wed)", "Jan 19\n(Fri)"]
ACTUAL_COLOR = IMPRINT_PALETTE[0] # #009E73 — Imprint position 1, always first series
IDEAL_COLOR = INK_SOFT # theme-adaptive muted reference line
title = "burndown-sprint · python · plotnine · anyplot.ai"
plot = (
ggplot()
# Weekend shading band — drawn first, behind all data layers
+ geom_rect(
data=weekend_df, mapping=aes(xmin="xmin", xmax="xmax", ymin="ymin", ymax="ymax"), fill=INK_MUTED, alpha=0.15
)
# Behind/ahead-of-schedule ribbon: translucent fill shows the gap
+ geom_ribbon(data=ribbon_df, mapping=aes(x="day", ymin="ymin", ymax="ymax"), fill=ANYPLOT_AMBER, alpha=0.12)
# Ideal burndown: straight dashed reference from 40 → 0
+ geom_line(data=ideal_df, mapping=aes(x="day", y="value", color="series"), linetype="dashed", size=0.9)
# Actual burndown: step series (work completed in discrete chunks)
+ geom_step(data=actual_df, mapping=aes(x="day", y="value", color="series"), size=1.4)
# Scope change marker: amber dotted vline on day 4 (Jan 12)
+ geom_vline(xintercept=4.0, linetype="dotted", color=ANYPLOT_AMBER, size=0.8)
# Scope change label (placed left of marker)
+ annotate("text", x=3.8, y=40.5, label="Scope\n+8 pts", color=ANYPLOT_AMBER, size=3.8, ha="right", va="top")
# Weekend label inside the shaded band
+ annotate("text", x=5.5, y=20.0, label="Weekend", color=INK_MUTED, size=3.5, ha="center", va="center")
# Color scale for legend
+ scale_color_manual(
values={"Actual Remaining": ACTUAL_COLOR, "Ideal Burndown": IDEAL_COLOR},
breaks=["Actual Remaining", "Ideal Burndown"],
name="",
)
+ scale_x_continuous(breaks=x_breaks, labels=x_labels)
+ scale_y_continuous(breaks=[0, 10, 20, 30, 40])
# Clip view so weekend rect (ymin=-2, ymax=50) stays within the axes
+ coord_cartesian(xlim=(-0.5, 11.5), ylim=(0, 43))
+ labs(x="Sprint Day", y="Remaining Story Points", title=title)
+ theme_minimal()
+ theme(
figure_size=(8, 4.5),
plot_background=element_rect(fill=PAGE_BG, color=PAGE_BG),
panel_background=element_rect(fill=PAGE_BG),
panel_grid_major_y=element_line(color=INK, size=0.3, alpha=0.12),
panel_grid_major_x=element_blank(),
panel_grid_minor=element_blank(),
panel_border=element_blank(),
axis_line=element_line(color=INK_SOFT, size=0.4),
axis_title=element_text(color=INK, size=10),
axis_text=element_text(color=INK_SOFT, size=8),
plot_title=element_text(color=INK, size=12),
legend_background=element_rect(fill=ELEVATED_BG, color=INK_SOFT),
legend_text=element_text(color=INK_SOFT, size=8),
legend_title=element_blank(),
legend_position="bottom",
)
)
plot.save(f"plot-{THEME}.png", dpi=400, width=8, height=4.5, units="in")
Part of Agile Sprint Burndown Chart on anyplot.ai.