Introducing the custom Forecasting chart 🔮 📈

We are excited to introduce our new custom Forecasting chart! It is a unique chart that you won’t find anywhere else. It provides data-driven forecasts for the completion of any work scope, such as a customer project or a new product release. The forecasts are presented as different velocity scenarios based on your team’s historical velocity.

The chart consists of two lines, a yellow line representing the total work and a white line representing the work done. As time progresses, the white line approaches the yellow line helping to see how much work is still to be done. The numbers can represent estimations, if available, or simply task counts.

The chart is divided into two parts. On the left side, you’ll see the progress so far. The right half of the chart shows the forecast for the future, represented as dotted lines. The overlays on the top show the amount of work remaining, the estimated team velocity, and the estimated completion date.

The forecasts are based on your team’s historical velocity. The Optimistic scenario expects that your team completes more work than in 80% of the past weeks. In the Most likely scenario, your team completes the equal amount as in the median week. In the Pessimistic scenario, the team completes only as much as 20% of the past weeks. The percentiles are configurable in the chart settings.

By default, the scope is all the tasks in the underlying data sources you’ve included. You can narrow it down to any subset of tasks by setting a filter, e.g. by label, epic, or assignee.

If you’re familiar with our Milestone Burnup chart, you’ll notice the similarities as it is based on the same principles. You have the total scope of work and the work done so far. You have the historical velocity and the forecast based on different scenarios. However, this chart contains several improvements, including:

• The forecast also considers the historical growth of the total work in addition to the historical growth of the work done

• The chart displays one scenario at a time (instead of all three at once) leading to a simpler representation

• Since it is a custom chart, it can be added to reports in addition to dashboards

The new Forecasting chart is available as a chart template so you can create one with just a few clicks!

Here’s a tutorial video that shows this chart in action: