There is one more thing that I would like to add to my previous post “Burn those Burndown Charts”. I believe both charts focus on completely different issues, which probably also indicates a mindset difference based on which chart one prefers.
Burndown charts focus on how close the team is to achieving a result.
Burnup charts focus on the value the team is creating.
I feel that this is another argument for preferring burnup charts. To me, focussing on whether or not we will achieve a certain short-term task is less important than looking at the value the team is creating. In a way, this value creation focus is similar to how we (should) use story points: The burnup chart indicates how much value the team has created during the Sprint and whether there were any points where value creation slowed down. We can then use that knowledge to improve the pace of value creation (if needed) and to figure out how much work we can plan for the next Sprint. This to me is more important than controlling whether or not a short-term goal is achievable or not.
The burndown chart on the other hand tells us whether or not we are going to miss the short-term target. It might indicate that we should adjust the way we work in the next Sprint, but it does not say anything about how much work we can actually achieve in a Sprint and how that value creation progresses during the Sprint, as it was not designed to provide this kind of information.
Just food for thought.
AgileEvangelist 