Understanding dates in TeamRoom and Standup Dashboard burndowns in Agility?

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Question

The dates on my Teamroom burndown are different than the dates on my Standup Dashboard burndown? The Teamroom shows the day after the iteration/sprint start and the dashboard shows a start date that is one week later. How do I get them to sync up?

Answer

The TeamRoom burndown functions off the start date of the iteration/sprint. The Standup Dashboard is configured based on the duration set in the sprint schedule. So, if the sprint schedule is set to X Weeks, the burndown in the Standup Dashboard will break its data points off in weeks, and that means that the second data point in the graph will be one week out from the actual iteration/sprint start date.

The burndown (as well as most charts and graphs) needs two data points. So the second data point is going to be in the future (so to speak) where ever the duration selected lands. So, if you selected Week, the second data point will be one week away from the start date selected. If it is set to Days, the start date on the chart would be one day later than the start date. The reason is that with only that first data point it does not know how to draw the line. If you need to include that date then you can make the start date one week earlier.

The following applies to burndowns as well:

• The inline burndown reports (the charts on the Sprint Planning and Tracking pages) do not show the first day's progress. Inline charts are locked in to the end of the first day through the end of the last day time period, so work done on the first day is not included.
• In the full chart in the Reports section, you can back up one day and use the maximum value at the beginning of the first day to calculate the sprint's ideal line.