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: ggplot2 3.5.1 | R 4.4.1
#' Quality: 88/100 | Created: 2026-06-14
library(ggplot2)
library(ragg)
set.seed(42)
# Theme tokens
THEME <- Sys.getenv("ANYPLOT_THEME", "light")
PAGE_BG <- if (THEME == "light") "#FAF8F1" else "#1A1A17"
INK <- if (THEME == "light") "#1A1A17" else "#F0EFE8"
INK_SOFT <- if (THEME == "light") "#4A4A44" else "#B8B7B0"
INK_MUTED <- if (THEME == "light") "#6B6A63" else "#A8A79F"
IMPRINT_PALETTE <- c(
"#009E73", # 1 — brand green (actual burndown)
"#C475FD", # 2 — lavender
"#4467A3", # 3 — blue (ideal line)
"#BD8233", # 4 — ochre
"#AE3030", # 5 — matte red
"#2ABCCD", # 6 — cyan
"#954477", # 7 — rose
"#99B314" # 8 — lime
)
ANYPLOT_AMBER <- "#DDCC77" # scope-change marker (warning/caution)
# Sprint data — 10 working days, starting with 52 story points
# Scope change on day 4 (+8 points added)
sprint_days <- 1:10
total_scope <- 52
scope_change_day <- 4
# Ideal burndown: straight line from total_scope to 0 over 10 days
ideal_initial <- seq(total_scope, 0, length.out = 11)[sprint_days]
# Actual remaining work (step function — discrete completions)
actual_remaining <- c(52, 47, 43, 40, 56, 50, 44, 35, 22, 0)
df <- data.frame(
day = sprint_days,
actual = actual_remaining,
ideal = ideal_initial
)
# Scope change annotation position (between day 4 and 5)
scope_change_x <- scope_change_day + 0.5
# Title
plot_title <- "burndown-sprint · r · ggplot2 · anyplot.ai"
title_chars <- nchar(plot_title)
title_size <- max(8, round(12 * 67 / title_chars))
p <- ggplot(df, aes(x = day)) +
# Weekend shading band (between working week 1 and 2)
annotate(
"rect",
xmin = 5.5, xmax = 6.5,
ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf,
fill = INK_SOFT, alpha = 0.08
) +
# Ideal burndown line (dashed, blue) — mapped for legend
geom_line(
aes(y = ideal, color = "Ideal", linetype = "Ideal"),
linewidth = 0.9
) +
# Actual remaining work as step series — mapped for legend
geom_step(
aes(y = actual, color = "Actual", linetype = "Actual"),
linewidth = 1.2
) +
# Points on actual line for daily readings
geom_point(
aes(y = actual, color = "Actual"),
size = 3.0, shape = 16, show.legend = FALSE
) +
# Scope change marker — vertical dotted line in amber
geom_vline(
xintercept = scope_change_x,
color = ANYPLOT_AMBER,
linewidth = 0.8,
linetype = "dotted"
) +
# Scope change annotation label
annotate(
"text",
x = scope_change_x + 0.12,
y = 54,
label = "+8 pts\nscope added",
color = ANYPLOT_AMBER,
size = 2.8,
hjust = 0,
fontface = "bold"
) +
# Weekend annotation
annotate(
"text",
x = 6.0,
y = 2,
label = "weekend",
color = INK_MUTED,
size = 2.2,
angle = 90
) +
# Native legend via color + linetype aesthetic mappings
scale_color_manual(
values = c("Actual" = IMPRINT_PALETTE[1], "Ideal" = IMPRINT_PALETTE[3]),
name = NULL,
breaks = c("Actual", "Ideal"),
guide = guide_legend(
override.aes = list(
linetype = c("solid", "dashed"),
linewidth = c(1.2, 0.9),
shape = c(16, NA)
)
)
) +
scale_linetype_manual(
values = c("Actual" = "solid", "Ideal" = "dashed"),
name = NULL,
guide = guide_none()
) +
# Axes
scale_x_continuous(
breaks = sprint_days,
labels = paste0("Day ", sprint_days),
expand = expansion(mult = c(0.03, 0.05))
) +
scale_y_continuous(
limits = c(0, 62),
breaks = seq(0, 60, by = 10),
expand = expansion(mult = c(0.02, 0.04))
) +
labs(
title = plot_title,
x = "Sprint Day",
y = "Remaining Story Points"
) +
theme_minimal(base_size = 8) +
theme(
plot.background = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = PAGE_BG),
panel.background = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = NA),
panel.grid.major = element_line(color = INK_SOFT, linewidth = 0.2),
panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
panel.border = element_blank(),
axis.line = element_line(color = INK_SOFT, linewidth = 0.4),
axis.ticks = element_line(color = INK_SOFT, linewidth = 0.3),
axis.title = element_text(color = INK, size = 10),
axis.text = element_text(color = INK_SOFT, size = 8),
axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 30, hjust = 1),
plot.title = element_text(color = INK, size = title_size,
margin = margin(b = 10)),
plot.margin = margin(20, 20, 15, 15),
legend.position = "inside",
legend.position.inside = c(0.98, 0.98),
legend.justification = c(1, 1),
legend.background = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = NA),
legend.key = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = NA),
legend.text = element_text(color = INK_SOFT, size = 8),
legend.key.width = unit(2, "lines"),
legend.margin = margin(2, 4, 2, 4)
)
# Save
ggsave(
filename = sprintf("plot-%s.png", THEME),
plot = p,
device = ragg::agg_png,
width = 8,
height = 4.5,
units = "in",
dpi = 400
)
Part of Agile Sprint Burndown Chart on anyplot.ai.