Sprint Burndown in ClickUp

The legacy Sprint Burndown cards in ClickUp help teams visualize sprint progress, spot scope changes, and keep work on track. This how-to guide walks you through enabling legacy sprint reporting, setting up burndown cards, and understanding each element of the chart so you can manage sprints efficiently.

Understand legacy Sprint Burndown in ClickUp

Legacy Sprint Burndown cards show how much work remains in your sprint over time. They compare your planned progress with actual progress, so you can see if your team is ahead, behind, or on track.

These cards are part of legacy Sprint Widgets and are useful when you want a simple, visual representation of sprint burn based on tasks, Story Points, or time estimates.

Enable legacy Sprint Widgets in ClickUp

If you do not see legacy Sprint Burndown cards in your Workspace, you may need to enable the legacy sprint experience.

Open ClickUp and go to your Workspace settings (usually under your profile avatar or Sidebar Workspace options).
Locate the sprints or Sprint Widgets configuration area. Legacy Sprint Widgets are tied to this older experience.
Enable the legacy Sprint Widgets option if it is available to you. Some Workspaces may already have it turned on.
Save your settings.

Once legacy Sprint Widgets are enabled, you can add and configure Sprint Burndown cards to your Dashboards.

Add a legacy Sprint Burndown card in ClickUp

To start tracking your sprint progress with a burndown visualization, add a Sprint Burndown card to a Dashboard in ClickUp.

From the Sidebar, open or create a Dashboard.
Click the button to add a card or widget to the Dashboard.
From the legacy sprint options, choose a Sprint Burndown card type.
Select the sprint you want to track and confirm the card settings.
Save the card to add it to your Dashboard layout.

You can add multiple Sprint Burndown cards if you want to compare different sprints or different metrics, such as Story Points versus time estimates.

Configure Sprint Burndown card settings in ClickUp

After adding a legacy Sprint Burndown card, adjust its settings so that it reflects the work and metric most relevant to your team.

Choose the sprint source in ClickUp

Each card can be tied to a specific sprint, so the chart only includes tasks from that sprint.

Open the Sprint Burndown card settings menu.
Select the sprint or sprint folder you want to track.
Confirm that only the correct sprint is selected, especially if you manage multiple teams or projects.

Select the burndown metric in ClickUp

You can burndown based on different metrics, depending on how you plan your work.

Common options include:

Tasks: Counts the number of open tasks remaining in the sprint.
Story Points: Uses Story Points estimates assigned to tasks.
Time estimates: Uses time estimates in minutes, hours, or days for each sprint task.

Pick the metric that best matches how your team measures sprint capacity.

Adjust display and filters in ClickUp

To refine your Sprint Burndown card:

Filter by specific Lists or Folders within the sprint, if available.
Choose whether to include subtasks in the burndown metric.
Set the time range so the chart matches the start and end dates of your sprint.

These filters ensure your burndown chart only shows the work that is truly in scope.

Read the Sprint Burndown chart in ClickUp

The legacy Sprint Burndown card is built around a simple chart with multiple lines that represent planned progress and actual performance.

Ideal burndown line

The ideal line represents the perfect scenario where your team burns down work at a constant rate from the start to the end of the sprint. It is a straight diagonal line from total initial work to zero remaining work on the last day.

Use this line as a reference to see whether you are on pace to complete the sprint.

Actual burndown line

The actual line tracks the remaining work at the end of each day based on completed tasks in ClickUp.

If the actual line:

Stays below the ideal line, your team is ahead of schedule.
Stays above the ideal line, you may be behind and need to adjust scope or capacity.
Follows the ideal line closely, the sprint is roughly on track.

Scope line and scope changes

Legacy Sprint Burndown cards can also show a scope line that tracks the total amount of work in the sprint over time.

Scope line behavior:

If the line stays flat, the scope is stable.
If the line increases, work has been added during the sprint.
If the line decreases, work has been removed or descoped.

Scope changes help explain why your team might appear behind or ahead on the burndown chart.

Track sprint health and capacity in ClickUp

Beyond reading the lines, use legacy Sprint Burndown cards to understand sprint health and capacity at a glance.

Monitor daily progress: Review the card each day to check whether remaining work is trending toward zero.
Identify blockers early: A flat actual burndown line could mean blockers or unestimated work are slowing your team down.
Manage scope creep: A rising scope line shows that new tasks are entering the sprint after it starts.
Review capacity use: Compare how many Story Points or hours are burned versus what was planned to tune future sprint planning.

Using the card regularly keeps your team aligned on progress and expectations.

Troubleshoot legacy Sprint Burndown in ClickUp

If your Sprint Burndown card does not look correct, walk through these checks.

Verify sprint dates

Make sure your sprint start and end dates are correct. If the dates are misaligned, the chart may show a shorter or longer timeline than intended.

Confirm task status mapping

Tasks only burn down when they are moved to a done or completed status.

Check that your sprint workflow has clear done statuses.
Ensure tasks are moved to done in ClickUp when work finishes.

Check estimation fields

If you are burning down Story Points or time:

Confirm that each sprint task has a value in the chosen estimation field.
Verify that subtasks are configured to be included or excluded as you intended.

Review filters and sprint selection

Inspect your Sprint Burndown card filters to make sure:

The correct sprint is selected.
Only relevant Lists and Folders are included.
Archived or out-of-scope tasks are not accidentally counted.

Compare legacy and current Sprint Burndown in ClickUp

Your Workspace might support newer sprint reporting features alongside the legacy Sprint Burndown cards. Legacy cards are useful when you rely on existing Dashboards or prefer the traditional layout and data fields.

When evaluating whether to stay with legacy cards or move to newer reporting, consider:

Your team’s familiarity with the legacy sprint experience.
Whether new reporting features offer views or metrics you need.
The need for long-term consistency across historical sprints.

Additional ClickUp sprint resources

To learn more about how the original feature behaves and how charts are calculated, review the official legacy documentation: Legacy Sprint Burndown cards in ClickUp.

If you need strategic help designing scalable Sprint Dashboards or optimizing your ClickUp setup for reporting, you can also explore consulting services at Consultevo.

By configuring legacy Sprint Burndown cards correctly and reviewing them daily, your team can make ClickUp a reliable single source of truth for sprint progress, scope control, and capacity planning.

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