Example of a burndown chart

You can develop a burndown chart using data from the iteration backlog, which is constantly updated.

Updates of work remaining at the end of each day in an iteration
Product backlog item	Task	Team member	Initial estimate of effort	Effort remaining after day 1	Effort remaining after day 2	Effort remaining after day 3	Effort remaining after day 4	Effort remaining after day 5	Effort remaining after day 6
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Edit database	Jonathan	6	5	4	1	0	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Develop web site	Jennifer	4	4	4	3	0	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Create backend business logic	Neil and Sally	3	3	3	3	1	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Perform testing	Simon and Peggy	4	5	5	5	4	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Update help information	Jennifer	2	2	2	2	2	0	0
As a client, I want to check my account balance	Modify database	Jonathan	6	6	6	6	6	6	4
As a client, I want to check my account balance	Develop web page	Sally	4	4	7	7	7	7	5
As a client, I want to check my account balance	Develop business logic	Peggy	5	5	5	5	5	5	3
As a client, I want to search for services and products.	Create database	Jonathan	6	5	4	4	3	3	2
As a client, I want to search for services and products. As a client, I want to search for services and products.	Develop web page	Jennifer	5	5	4	4	3	2	1
As a client, I want to search for services and products. As a client, I want to search for services and products.	Update search features	Simon and Sally	4	4	4	3	5	4	2
	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
		Total (person hours)	50	48	42	35	30	27	20

Based on information in the iteration backlog, you can plot the effort remaining at the end of each day on a burndown chart.

Burndown chart

In this chart, you plotted the estimates of effort remaining at the end of each day in the iteration so that the team could view its progress. The idealized line illustrates the desired level of progress, if the team is to complete the iteration successfully. In this case, the team's progress is ahead of schedule, so by day 10 of the iteration the effort remaining should be zero.