How to use Burn-Up Charts and a Burn-Up Chart Analysis to Predict Delivery Dates

“When will the feature be ready?”
“Is it possible to get this functionality by the end of May?”
“When can we go online with this new feature?”

Product managers and Product Owners are asked all these questions every day.
And it’s not always easy to give a good answer and an overview and to say “NO” sometimes.

One better way to answer such questions without a hard “NO” could be this statement:
If you want this feature by May, this feature will not be done, we can deliver it by the end of June with sprint number 15.

With the Burn-Up Chart Product Owners now have the chance to predict the implementations and to provide such answers.

It can deliver all these statements and it is a great way to visualize different scenarios. Let’s dive into the topic.

What is a Burn-Up chart?

A Burn-Up chart visualizes the finished work over time. It accumulates the finished work and sets it in contrast to the total scope and passed time. With the Burn-Up chart, we can on the one hand track the team's progress towards the scope but also identify on the other hand problems (like scope creep) and make predictions of the progress in the upcoming days and weeks.