Fix Version Burndown Report

This report is designed to monitor the progress of upcoming software releases. It provides a visual representation of the total volume of outstanding work (i.e., the number of open issues) for one or more specified Fix Versions over a given period.

The report's primary function is to show how the team is "burning down" the remaining work leading up to a release date, providing a clear and immediate picture of release health.

How to Read the Chart:

Typically, you will observe two main phases in the lifecycle of a Fix Version on this chart:

Scope Definition (Ramp-Up): Initially, the area for a version may grow or remain high as new issues are created and added to the release scope. This phase visualizes the planning and addition of work.
Work Execution (Burndown): As the team resolves issues by moving them to a "Done" or "Closed" status, they are no longer counted as 'open.' Consequently, the area for that version will shrink, ideally trending down to zero by the release date. This downward slope represents the actual burndown of work.

Here’s how to configure the Fix Version Burndown report for Jira:

Step 1: Set up your Data Source.

Use the filter “Status was” and select all relevant open statuses.
Choose a specific date range that includes the time period for your fix versions.
Add a JQL Query:

fixVersion IN (version_A, version_B)

To display only specific Fix Versions and exclude any noise use:

fixVersion IN (version_A, version_B) 
AND fixVersion NOT IN (version_C)

Step 2: Choose the "Number of issues over time in status" metric. Make sure to select the same open statuses you used in the Data Source filter.

Step 3: Display by “Status change date” field. This field is automatically applied when using the “Number of issues over time in status” metric. Changing it may lead to inaccurate chart data.

Step 4: Group by “Fix Versions”

Additional settings screens:

Data Source settings from our sample:

Metric settings from our sample: