Agile Epic Explained: How to Manage Big Features Effectively

An agile epic helps manage large features by breaking down complex initiatives, such as revamping a login system or building a new checkout flow, into smaller, manageable user stories. This approach allows teams to focus on delivering value incrementally while maintaining clear alignment on goals and priorities. 

By organizing work this way, epics prevent teams from getting overwhelmed by details and support smoother planning, tracking, and collaboration. 

In this article, you’ll explore what agile epics are, how they differ from related concepts like user stories and initiatives, and practical strategies to write, track, and manage epics for successful project delivery.

What Is an Agile Epic and Why It Matters in Project Management

An agile epic is a high-level container for large, impactful features or initiatives within an agile project. Think of it as the big-picture goal that holds multiple user stories, which are smaller, actionable tasks that can be completed in a single sprint. By organizing complex features into epics, teams can easily break down large goals into manageable parts, ensuring steady progress and allowing for the delivery of incremental value.

This structure not only simplifies planning and tracking but also helps teams prioritize their backlog and align work with sprint goals, ensuring they focus on delivering the highest-value features first. Here’s how epics streamline project management by breaking down complex work into manageable, goal-oriented tasks.

• Organization and Planning: Epics structure large projects into smaller, more achievable chunks, ensuring that complex work doesn’t overwhelm the team.
• Tracking Progress: Each epic serves as a milestone, enabling teams to measure progress and prioritize tasks based on their value and urgency.
• Incremental Delivery: Breaking epics into user stories allows teams to deliver parts of a feature at regular intervals, ensuring constant value delivery.

Benefits of Agile Epics

• Improved Clarity: Epics provide teams with a clear blueprint and understanding of what needs to be done to ensure everyone is aligned with the project’s goals.
• Prioritization: Epics enable teams to assign greater importance to the most critical features based on business needs, allowing them to focus on delivering value.
• Team Alignment: By splitting tasks into epics and user stories, team members share a clear vision and well-defined responsibilities, ensuring a collective approach to project execution.

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Key Components of an Agile Epic: Goals, Acceptance Criteria, and More

An agile epic consists of several key components that work together to deconstruct complex features into manageable work items. These components not only define the scope of the epic but also guide the development process and help measure success. 

By incorporating elements such as goals, acceptance criteria, and related user stories, agile teams can ensure they remain focused, aligned, and on track. Here’s an explanation of the core components of an agile epic:

1. Goals: Defining the Purpose of the Epic

Every agile epic starts with a clear goal that aligns with the organization's broader business objectives. The goal sets the vision for what the epic aims to achieve, providing a high-level purpose for the feature or initiative. This helps teams understand the value they’re delivering and ensures everyone is aligned regarding priorities.

• Example: For an e-commerce app, an epic’s goal could be: "Enhance the checkout process to improve user experience and reduce cart abandonment."

2. Acceptance Criteria: Defining "Done"

Acceptance criteria are a crucial component of an agile epic because they define its success. These criteria set clear, measurable conditions that must be met for the epic to be considered complete. By defining acceptance criteria early on, teams can ensure that all features are built according to the same standards and that quality is maintained.

• Example: For the checkout process epic:
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • Users can complete a purchase using multiple payment methods, including credit and debit cards, PayPal, and other options.
  • The checkout process must take less than 3 minutes from cart to purchase confirmation.
  • The system should display an order summary and receipt upon completion of the order.

3. User Stories: Breaking the Epic Into Manageable Tasks

An epic is deconstructed into multiple user stories, which represent the individual pieces of work needed to complete it. These user stories are typically smaller, actionable tasks that can be completed in a single sprint. While an epic is a large, broad initiative, user stories are specific, focused tasks that contribute to completing it.

• Example: The epic "Enhance the checkout process" could be broken into the following user stories:
  • User Story 1: As a user, I want to enter my shipping address so that I can receive my purchase.
  • User Story 2: As a user, I want to choose my payment method (credit/debit, PayPal) so that I can complete the transaction.
  • User Story 3: As a user, I want to receive a confirmation email after completing my purchase.

Each of these user stories is small enough to be worked on in individual sprints, but they all contribute to the epic's overarching goal.

4. Timeframe and Prioritization: Managing Scope and Deadlines

Time and prioritization are essential in defining the scope of an agile epic. By setting a timeframe and determining the priority of each component, teams can ensure they’re working on the most valuable aspects of the epic first. This prevents feature creep and helps keep the project on track.

• Example:
  • Timeframe: Complete the epic within 3 sprints (6 weeks).
  • Prioritization: The user story for the payment method integration is a high priority, while the order confirmation email can be a lower priority.

5. Dependencies: Understanding What Affects the Epic

It’s important to identify any dependencies early in the process to avoid roadblocks down the line. Dependencies can be on external systems, other teams, or internal components of the software. Recognizing these dependencies helps with planning and scheduling, ensuring a smooth execution.

• Example:
  • The payment method integration user story may depend on working with a third-party payment gateway API.
  • The shipping address entry may depend on the database being set up to securely store shipping information.

6. Measuring Success: How to Track Progress

To track the progress of an agile epic, it’s important to define how you’ll measure success at each stage. Metrics like burn-down charts and velocity help teams visualize their progress and identify any bottlenecks.

• Example:
  • Using a burn-down chart, the team can track the number of tasks completed each day during the sprint and compare it to the total number of tasks.
  • Velocity not only helps estimate how much work the team can complete in upcoming sprints based on past performance, but also serves as a tool to evaluate that past performance. By analyzing velocity trends, you can identify patterns, spot inefficiencies, and adjust sprint scopes more realistically.

Agile Epic vs User Story vs Initiatives: Understanding Key Agile Work Items

In the agile framework, epics, user stories, and initiatives represent different levels of work items, each serving a unique purpose in organizing and executing tasks. Understanding the key concepts of Agile epic vs User story vs Initiatives and their interrelationships is crucial for agile teams to manage and deliver complex projects efficiently.

Here’s a quick comparison table to summarize initiatives, epics, and user stories before we jump into the Agile epic vs User story vs Initiatives distinctions through detailed examples:

Here’s a detailed explanation of how each work item fits into the Agile hierarchy:

1. Initiatives: The High-Level Business Goals

Initiatives are the broad, strategic goals or objectives set by the organization. These are often high-level business goals that guide the direction of multiple projects or epics. An initiative is typically broken down into several epics to align specific deliverables with the larger organizational objectives.

• Scope and Purpose: Initiatives are designed to address long-term, business-critical objectives, such as enhancing customer satisfaction or introducing a new product line.
• Example:
  • Initiative: "Enhance User Experience for E-commerce Platform"
  • Related Epics: "Redesign Website Interface," "Develop Mobile App," "Optimize Checkout Process"

Initiatives provide the overarching purpose that epics and user stories align with, ensuring that teams focus on what’s most important to the business.

2. Agile Epics: The Big Milestones

An agile epic is a larger body of work that can be decomposed into smaller user stories. Epics serve as the bridge between initiatives and user stories, often representing the main features or functionalities that need to be developed within a specific timeframe. They represent high-level tasks that are too large to be completed in a single sprint, making them the ideal starting point for structuring detailed work.

• Scope and Purpose: Epics represent milestones or major chunks of work within an initiative. They guide teams by providing direction for development.
• Example:
  • Epic: "Redesign Website Interface" under the "Enhance User Experience for E-commerce Platform" initiative.
    • Related User Stories:
      • User Story 1: "As a user, I want a more visually appealing homepage."
      • User Story 2: "As a user, I want a quicker navigation menu."

Agile epics provide teams with a roadmap for completing complex features, maintaining clarity and structure, and ensuring a clear and structured approach to project completion.

3. User Stories: The Actionable Tasks

In agile, user stories are the smallest units of work, typically representing a single feature or requirement from the user's perspective. User stories are the actionable steps needed to complete an epic. They are short, simple, and designed to be completed within a single sprint.

• Scope and Purpose: User stories focus on specific user needs and deliverables. They are detailed, actionable, and prioritized based on value and dependencies.
• Example:
  • User Story 1 (part of the "Redesign Website Interface" epic): "As a user, I want a homepage that loads in under 3 seconds to improve my browsing experience."
  • User Story 2 (part of the "Redesign Website Interface" epic): "As a user, I want the navigation menu to be simplified and intuitive."

User stories define the precise features that developers work on and give clear, immediate goals to achieve.

Relationship Between Initiatives, Epics, and User Stories

To visualize how initiatives, agile epics, and user stories fit together, consider the following hierarchy:

• Initiative: A broad business goal or vision.
  • Epic: Major milestones or features that need to be achieved to complete the initiative.
    • User Stories: The detailed tasks required to accomplish each epic.

Each level of work breaks down the previous one, with user stories focusing on specific, actionable tasks, and epics covering larger chunks of work within the scope of the initiative.

Also Read: Where Are You On The Product Management Ladder?

Practical Example: Agile Epics in Action

Initiative: "Launch a Mobile E-commerce App"

• Epic 1: "Design Mobile App UI"
  • User Story 1: "As a user, I want a mobile-friendly homepage so that I can browse products easily."
  • User Story 2: "As a user, I want a streamlined checkout process to make purchases faster."
• Epic 2: "Integrate Payment Gateway"
  • User Story 1: "As a user, I want the option to pay via PayPal."
  • User Story 2: "As a user, I want to save my credit card details for future purchases securely."

Here, the initiative drives the development of the mobile app, and each epic is broken down into smaller user stories that focus on delivering individual features. This structure ensures teams stay focused on the larger objective while progressively completing smaller, user-driven tasks.

Now that we have a good understanding of the crucial Agile epic vs user story vs Initiatives differences, let’s see how you can measure and track Agile Epics in the following section. 

How to Measure and Track Agile Epics?

Measuring and tracking the progress of an agile epic is essential for ensuring that large features are being completed on time and align with business goals. Unlike smaller tasks, agile epics span multiple sprints and often involve multiple team members, making it crucial to have clear metrics and performance indicators in place to track progress. 

By using effective metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), teams can ensure they are meeting expectations and adjust plans if necessary. Here’s how you can effectively measure and track agile epics throughout the project lifecycle:

1. Burn-Down and Burn-Up Charts: Visualizing Progress

One of the most common and effective ways to track the progress of agile epics is through burn-down and burn-up charts. These charts visually illustrate the amount of work completed and the amount remaining.

• Burn-Down Chart: Tracks how much work remains in an epic over time, helping teams understand how fast they are completing tasks.
  • Example: If an epic contains 50 story points, and after the first sprint, only 40 story points are remaining, the burn-down chart will reflect the completed tasks.
• Burn-Up Chart: Tracks the work completed and the scope of the epic. It helps highlight scope changes, such as new user stories added or removed.
  • Example: If new tasks are added to the epic, the burn-up chart will display an increase in total work, allowing the team to adjust their expectations accordingly.

Example of a Burn-Down Chart:

• X-axis: Sprints
• Y-axis: Remaining Story Points
• The chart slopes downward, showing progress toward completing the epic.

Example of a Burn-Up Chart:

• X-axis: Time (Sprints)
• Y-axis: Completed and Total Story Points
• The chart slopes upward, showing total progress.

Also Read: What is Performance Appraisal? Meaning and Overview

2. Velocity: Measuring How Fast Your Team Is Completing Epics

Velocity is a metric that measures how many story points a team can complete in a sprint. By tracking velocity, you can predict how long it will take to complete the remaining user stories in an epic.

• How It Works: If a team completes 30 story points in one sprint, their velocity is 30. If the epic is estimated at 90 story points, the team will likely complete it in three sprints.

Using Velocity for Planning:

• Track the team's average velocity across multiple sprints.
• Use this to estimate the completion time of future agile epics and improve sprint planning.

3. Epic Completion Rate: Tracking Progress Against the Total Scope

An epic completion rate is the percentage of work completed out of the total work planned in the epic. This is useful for measuring how close you are to finishing an epic.

• How to Calculate:

Epic Completion Rate = (Completed Story Points ÷ Total Story Points in the Epic) × 100

• Example: If an epic has 50 story points, and the team has completed 30 story points, the completion rate would be:

(50 ÷ 30)×100 = 60%

This shows that the team has completed 60% of the epic.

4. Lead Time and Cycle Time: Tracking Efficiency

Lead time and cycle time are two key metrics that measure how quickly the team delivers value within an epic.

• Lead Time: The total time from the initiation of an epic until its completion. This includes all phases, from planning to delivery.
• Cycle Time: The time it takes to complete a single user story or task within the epic, from when the work starts to when it is finished.

Using Lead Time and Cycle Time to Measure Success:

• Shorter lead and cycle times indicate that the team is working efficiently.
• If there are delays, it could be a sign that the epic's scope is too large or that additional resources are needed.

Now that we've covered the core concepts of agile epics and their role in managing projects, let's explore the tools that can help streamline epic management and track progress.

Tools to Support Agile Epic Management

Managing agile epics effectively requires the right tools to ensure smooth tracking, collaboration, and reporting. Agile project management tools are designed to simplify the process of organizing and executing epics, allowing teams to stay aligned with business objectives and agile principles. 

These tools provide real-time visibility into progress, enable communication between team members, and help track the evolution of epics and user stories over time. 

Here’s a quick overview of the important tools, highlighting their features and uses:

Below, you’ll find a detailed explanation of some of the popular tools that can help manage agile epics efficiently:

1. Jira: The Most Popular Agile Tool

Jira, developed by Atlassian, is one of the most widely used tools for agile project management. It's especially powerful when it comes to managing agile epics and tracking their progress.

Key Features:

• Epic and User Story Mapping: Easily break down epics into user stories and track their progress across sprints.
• Burndown Charts: Visualize the completion of epics and user stories over time.
• Customizable Dashboards: Tailor your dashboard to monitor epic progress, team velocity, and sprint health.
• Integration with Confluence: Collaborate on documentation and project plans within the same ecosystem.

Example:

A product development team uses Jira to track an epic called "Redesign Website UI," breaking it down into multiple user stories, such as "Create New Homepage Layout" and "Optimize Navigation Menu." They use burndown charts to monitor progress, ensuring that they stay on schedule for each sprint.

Also Read: 23+ Best Agile Project Management Tools for 2025: Features and Benefits

2. Azure DevOps: Streamlining Agile Processes

Azure DevOps by Microsoft provides an end-to-end solution for planning, developing, and managing agile projects. It supports epics, user stories, and tasks, making it easy for teams to track complex projects.

Key Features:

• Boards: Create boards for epics, user stories, and tasks. Use them to visualize your team’s progress using Kanban or Scrum templates.
• Backlog Management: Organize epics and user stories in a backlog, allowing easy prioritization and refinement.
• Reporting and Metrics: Built-in reports and dashboards help track the progress of epics and user stories, offering insights into velocity and team performance.

Example:

An agile team managing a large-scale app development project uses Azure DevOps to manage the epic "Implement Mobile App Authentication." They break it down into smaller user stories, such as "Enable User Login" and "Implement Social Media Authentication." Azure DevOps helps them track their sprint progress with daily updates on the status of these stories.

Also Read: Real-Life DevOps Applications: Key Examples

3. Trello: Simplifying Agile with Boards

Trello provides a straightforward, visual approach to managing agile projects. Although it’s not as robust as Jira or Azure DevOps for large-scale projects, Trello’s card-based system is excellent for smaller teams or those just starting with agile practices.

Key Features:

• Boards and Cards: Create boards for each epic, then break them down into cards for user stories.
• Labels and Due Dates: Add labels to cards to categorize by priority or feature, and assign due dates to ensure timely completion.
• Power-Ups: Integrate with tools like Slack, Google Drive, or Zapier for enhanced functionality.

Example:

A small development team uses Trello to manage the epic "Develop E-commerce Platform." They create cards for each user story, such as "Design Checkout Page" and "Integrate Payment Gateway." Each card is labeled with its priority and due date, helping the team stay on track with their sprint goals.

Also Read: Which of These Product Management Tools are You Already Using?

4. Monday.com: Collaborative Work Management

Monday.com is a work management platform that provides a comprehensive view of all tasks, from high-level epics to individual user stories. It’s designed to be user-friendly and is excellent for teams that need to collaborate closely on project management.

Key Features:

• Customizable Workflows: Define workflows for agile epics and user stories to match your team’s processes.
• Progress Tracking: Use visual timelines, Gantt charts, and Kanban boards to track progress.
• Automation: Automate task assignments and status updates to save time and increase efficiency.

Example:

A cross-functional product team uses Monday.com to manage the epic "Develop New User Dashboard." They break the epic down into user stories, such as "Design UI Layout," "Integrate API for User Data," and "Implement Notification System." The visual board helps track progress, while automated reminders ensure deadlines are met and priorities stay clear across design, development, and QA teams.

Also Read: HR Management Made Easy Using 15 HR Tools and Softwares

5. Asana: Streamlining Work with Agile Features

Asana is another popular project management tool that supports agile epics and user stories. It’s particularly known for its ease of use and strong collaboration features, making it ideal for teams that need to track both large and small projects.

Key Features:

• Task Management: Create tasks for user stories and organize them under relevant epics.
• Timelines: Use timelines to visualize how tasks progress over time, helping teams identify potential delays and plan accordingly.
• Workload Management: Track team capacity to ensure that work is evenly distributed across the team.

Example:

A development team uses Asana to track the epic "Implement User Profile Feature." They break the epic into smaller tasks, such as "Design User Profile Page" and "Create Profile Image Upload Function." Asana helps them track task deadlines and visualize the project timeline, ensuring timely completion.

Also Read: Project Management Applications: Real-World Use Cases & Tools

Now that we've explored the tools that streamline agile epic management, let’s look at how these practices are applied in real scenarios across various industries to drive success.

Practical Applications of Agile Epics Across Industries

Agile epics are not just theoretical concepts; they are practically applied across various industries to manage large features and complex projects. By breaking down high-level initiatives into smaller, actionable user stories, agile epics help teams stay organized, maintain focus, and ensure that large tasks are completed incrementally. 

In this section of the article, we’ll explore how agile epics streamline workflows across different industries, making large initiatives more manageable and achievable.

1. Software Development: Managing Large-Scale Features

In the software development industry, agile epics are often used to manage large features that require multiple sprints. Instead of getting bogged down by the complexity of a large task, breaking it into epics allows teams to prioritize and focus on specific components in manageable chunks.

• Example:
  • Epic: "Develop User Authentication System"
    • User Story 1: "As a new user, I want to create an account using my email and password so that I can access personalized features."
    • User Story 2: "As a registered user, I want to securely log in to the platform so that my data remains protected."
    • User Story 3: "As a user who forgot my password, I want to reset it via email so that I can regain access easily."
• How Epics Help: By using epics, developers can create a comprehensive user authentication system without becoming overwhelmed by the size of the project. Segregating the system into smaller user stories enables incremental delivery, with each story adding functionality that ultimately forms a complete system.

2. Marketing: Managing Campaigns and Product Launches

In marketing, agile epics help manage large, multifaceted campaigns or product launches. With numerous activities, content, and teams involved, epics provide a clear framework for delivering a successful campaign in phases.

• Example:
  • Epic: "Launch New E-Commerce Platform"
    • User Story 1: "Create product listing pages."
    • User Story 2: "Set up payment gateway integration."
    • User Story 3: "Design email campaigns for customer outreach."
• How Epics Help: Epics enable marketing teams to break down a comprehensive launch into smaller, focused tasks. By breaking down tasks into user stories, teams can ensure each element is completed step-by-step and is aligned with the overarching goals of the campaign.

3. Healthcare: Improving Patient Care with Incremental Changes

In the healthcare industry, agile epics are utilized to manage the development and implementation of reliable healthcare solutions, including new patient care systems and telemedicine platforms. These large projects are broken down into epics to improve efficiency and maintain a patient-focused approach.

• Example:
  • Epic: "Implement Electronic Health Records (EHR) System"
    • User Story 1: "As a doctor, I want to access patient records digitally."
    • User Story 2: "As a nurse, I want to update patient information in real-time."
    • User Story 3: "As an administrator, I want to generate reports for patient management."
• How Epics Help: Healthcare providers utilize agile epics to break down complex, long-term initiatives, such as EHR implementation, into smaller, more manageable pieces. This helps ensure that essential functionalities are delivered first, while allowing time for adjustments and improvements over time.

4. Finance: Streamlining Product Development and Upgrades

In the finance industry, agile epics are frequently utilized for the development of banking applications, fintech tools, or regulatory compliance systems. These projects often involve multiple stakeholders and regulatory constraints, making it essential to break them down into manageable components.

• Example:
  • Epic: "Develop Mobile Banking App"
    • User Story 1: "As a user, I want to check my balance."
    • User Story 2: "As a user, I want to transfer money between accounts."
    • User Story 3: "As a user, I want to receive transaction alerts."
• How Epics Help: Using agile epics enables financial institutions to prioritize high-value features, such as basic account functionality, first, before moving on to more advanced features. This incremental approach allows for faster delivery of value while ensuring compliance and security.

5. Education: Implementing New Learning Platforms and Tools

In education, agile epics play a vital role in the creation and maintenance of online learning platforms or tools for teachers and students. Large-scale projects, such as the development of a learning management system (LMS) or a new curriculum, can be broken down into epics to improve clarity and ensure timely delivery.

• Example:
  • Epic: "Develop Online Learning Management System"
    • User Story 1: "As a student, I want to view my course materials online."
    • User Story 2: "As a teacher, I want to grade assignments electronically."
    • User Story 3: "As an admin, I want to track student progress in real-time."
• How Epics Help: For educational institutions, agile epics ensure that key functionalities, such as course viewing or assignment submission, are developed and tested first. This allows students and teachers to use the system while other features are built in parallel.

Now that we’ve seen how agile epics work across industries, let’s explore a step-by-step guide to writing clear, effective epics for successful delivery.

How to Write an Agile Epic? A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide

Creating an agile epic involves more than just identifying large tasks; it requires a structured approach to ensure that the epic is both broad enough to accommodate key business goals and specific enough to be broken down into actionable user stories. 

Here, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of how to write an agile epic, as well as best practices to ensure that your epics are manageable and effective.

Step 1: Understand the Business Goal

Before you understand how to write an agile epic, it's crucial to understand the overall business goal or strategic initiative that the epic will support. An epic is not just a feature; it’s a major milestone or a large-scale task aligned with the organization’s objectives.

• Tip: Work closely with product owners, stakeholders, and business leaders to define the epic's primary purpose.
• Example:
  • Epic Goal: "Improve Customer Satisfaction by Enhancing the Checkout Process."
    • This epic will focus on improving various aspects of the e-commerce checkout experience to reduce cart abandonment.

Step 2: Keep It Broad but Manageable

An agile epic should capture a significant goal that aligns with business objectives, but remain manageable enough to be broken down into smaller user stories. This balance ensures the epic is neither too vague nor too detailed, making it easier to plan and develop incrementally within individual sprints.

Keeping your epic broad while ensuring it’s manageable is key to effective execution.

• Tip: Write your epic in a way that focuses on the outcome rather than the details. This allows the team flexibility in breaking it down into smaller, actionable pieces later.
• Example:
  • Epic: "Enhance User Login Experience"
    • User Stories:
      • As a user, I want to log in using my Google account.
      • As a user, I want to see a loading animation when my credentials are being verified.
      • As a user, I want to easily reset my password.

Step 3: Break It Down into User Stories

Once you have a clear idea of how to write an agile epic, the next step is to break it down into smaller user stories. This allows your team to work on the epic incrementally, delivering small, valuable chunks of functionality at regular intervals. 

Each user story should be focused on delivering a tangible outcome for the user and should fit within a single sprint.

• Tip: Ensure that each user story in the epic is small enough to be completed in one sprint.
• Example of Breaking Down the Epic:
  • Epic: "Develop a Mobile Banking App"
    • User Story 1: "As a user, I want to log into my account using a fingerprint scanner."
    • User Story 2: "As a user, I want to transfer money between my accounts."
    • User Story 3: "As a user, I want to view my transaction history."

By doing this, you ensure that each user story is a clear, actionable task that can be completed efficiently and effectively.

Step 4: Define Acceptance Criteria for the Epic

Every agile epic requires clear acceptance criteria that outline what “done” means. These criteria set the conditions the team must meet to complete the epic, ensuring everyone shares a common understanding of the goals. Make sure your criteria are specific, measurable, and testable to avoid ambiguity. Refer to the INVEST framework introduced earlier for more clarity.

• Tip: Make acceptance criteria specific, measurable, and testable. This ensures everyone knows when the epic is finished and avoids ambiguity.
• Example of Acceptance Criteria for an Epic:
  • Epic: "Improve Checkout Experience"
    • Acceptance Criteria:
      • Users can complete the checkout process in under 3 minutes.
      • Users can apply discount codes seamlessly.
      • The checkout process is fully mobile-responsive

These criteria provide a clear definition of completion, keeping the team aligned throughout the development process.

Step 5: Collaborate with Stakeholders and Teams

Creating an agile epic is not a solo task; it requires collaboration among multiple teams, including development, design, and product management. Regular collaboration ensures that the epic stays aligned with business goals, user needs, and technical feasibility.

• Tip: Hold collaborative workshops or brainstorming sessions to align stakeholders and ensure that everyone has a shared understanding of the epic’s purpose and scope.
• Example:
  • During a collaboration session, the product owner might suggest that certain features in the "Improve Checkout Experience" epic be prioritized based on customer feedback. At the same time, the development team provides input on technical constraints or dependencies.

Step 6: Prioritize the Epic and User Stories

Once you have a set of user stories derived from your agile epic, it’s time to prioritize them. This ensures that your team works on the most important features first and delivers maximum value as quickly as possible.

• Tip: Prioritize based on business value, technical dependencies, and team capacity.
• Example of Prioritization:
  • Epic: "Develop Mobile App for E-commerce"
    • High Priority User Stories:
      • "As a user, I want to browse products by category."
      • "As a user, I want to save my payment methods for future purchases securely."
• Low Priority User Stories:
  • "As a user, I want to view product reviews and ratings."
  • "As a user, I want personalized product recommendations."

Now that you’ve learned how to write a clear and effective agile epic, let’s explore how to break it down into smaller, manageable user stories for smoother execution and delivery.

How to Decompose Agile Epics Into Manageable User Stories?

Decomposing agile epics into smaller, manageable user stories is a critical step in agile project management. It allows teams to break down large, high-level features into detailed, actionable tasks that can be completed within a sprint. 

This process ensures that teams work on the most valuable features first, allowing for iterative progress and making complex projects more manageable and organized.

1. The Process of Decomposing Epics into User Stories

Breaking down agile epics involves a structured approach where the epic is divided into smaller tasks, or user stories, that are specific, clear, and deliverable within a sprint. The decomposition process can vary depending on the project, but it generally follows these steps:

• Step 1: Start with the Big Picture

Begin by reviewing the agile epic and ensuring that the business goal is clear. The epic should be large enough to represent a significant feature but also flexible enough to be broken down into smaller pieces.

• Step 2: Identify the Key Features

Next, identify the core functionalities or components that make up the epic. This is typically done through discussions with stakeholders, product owners, and developers.

• Step 3: Break Down Features into User Stories

Once you’ve identified the core features, break them down into user stories. Each user story should focus on delivering a small, functional part of the epic that provides value to the user.

• Step 4: Ensure Story Readiness

Before finalizing the user stories, ensure they meet the INVEST criteria:

1. Independent
2. Negotiable
3. Valuable
4. Estimable
5. Small
6. Testable

• Step 5: Prioritize the User Stories

Prioritize the user stories based on business value and dependencies. Ensure that you prioritize high-value, essential tasks first, while also considering any dependencies that may impact delivery.

Example:

• Epic: "Create User Authentication System"
  • User Story 1: "As a user, I want to create an account using my email and password."
  • User Story 2: "As a user, I want to log in using my existing credentials."
  • User Story 3: "As a user, I want to reset my password via email."
  • User Story 4: "As an admin, I want to view user authentication logs."

2. Importance of Maintaining Traceability Between Epics and User Stories

Maintaining clear traceability between agile epics and user stories is critical for project management and reporting. Traceability ensures that all work done at the user story level contributes to the success of the epic and the larger business goal. 

It also allows for easier tracking of progress and helps identify potential issues early in the development cycle.

• Why Traceability Matters:
  • Alignment with Business Goals: By linking user stories to their parent epic, you ensure that the team is always working towards the broader goal.
  • Transparency: Traceability enables stakeholders to understand the relationship between high-level features (epics) and specific tasks (user stories), thereby improving visibility across teams.
  • Progress Monitoring: It allows for easy tracking of how many user stories have been completed within an epic and what’s still pending.
• Tools for Maintaining Traceability:
  • Jira: Allows users to link user stories to epics, providing a visual representation of progress and dependencies.
  • Trello: Cards can be grouped under lists that represent epics, making it easier to track the completion of associated user stories.
  • Azure DevOps: Offers robust functionality to track epics and user stories, allowing teams to manage and monitor work from a high-level perspective down to detailed tasks.

3. Tools and Techniques to Enable Decomposition

Several tools and techniques help streamline the decomposition of agile epics into user stories, ensuring that the process remains organized and efficient.

• Techniques:
  • User Story Mapping: This technique involves visually mapping out the flow of user stories in relation to the epic. It helps identify gaps and prioritize features based on their importance and dependencies.
  • Impact Mapping: A method used to link epics to specific business goals. It ensures that user stories are aligned with the desired outcomes, improving the overall focus on delivering value.
• Tools:

  • Jira: Jira is highly effective for epic vs user story tracking, allowing you to organize work into epics and then break them into smaller user stories that can be tracked through sprints.

    Example: In Jira, you can create an epic called "Improve Mobile App Performance," then create user stories like "Optimize image loading speed" and "Reduce app startup time" within that epic.

  • Trello: Trello boards can be used to represent epics as lists, with user stories added as individual cards within each list. This tool is particularly useful for teams working on smaller projects or those seeking a simpler interface.

    Example: In Trello, each epic can be a list, and each user story can be a card within the list, allowing teams to visualize 

  • Asana: Asana’s visual layout enables teams to create epics as projects and break them down into smaller tasks that represent user stories.

    Example: For a marketing team using Asana, the epic "Launch New Website" could be divided into tasks like "Create landing page" and "Set up product catalog," each of which is a user story.

Now that you know how to break down agile epics, let’s explore best practices to manage them effectively throughout the project.

Agile Epic Best Practices for Effective Feature Management

Managing agile epics is essential for ensuring that large features are delivered efficiently and aligned with business goals throughout the project lifecycle. While epics provide structure for complex initiatives, it's crucial to follow best practices for successful execution.

Below, we’ll cover actionable agile epic best practices, common pitfalls to avoid, and techniques to effectively adapt and manage large features.

1. Start with Clear and Aligned Goals

Every agile epic should begin with a clear, well-defined goal that aligns with business priorities. This goal helps the team understand the purpose of the epic and ensures alignment across stakeholders.

• Tip: Involve stakeholders early in defining the epic’s goal to ensure it meets the business’s objectives and user needs.
• Example: For a mobile app development project, the epic goal could be: "Develop a secure and user-friendly login feature."
• Outcome: Clear goals help prioritize epics and guide the creation of user stories, ensuring that each piece of work contributes to the larger objective.

2. Break Epics Down into Smaller, Actionable User Stories

Once the agile epic is defined, it’s crucial to break it down into smaller user stories. User stories represent specific, actionable tasks that can be completed in a sprint. This decomposition ensures that large tasks become manageable, allowing progress to be tracked effectively.

• Tip: Follow the INVEST criteria for user stories:
  • Independent
  • Negotiable
  • Valuable
  • Estimable
  • Small
  • Testable
• Example:
  • Epic: "Enhance Mobile App User Interface"
  • User Stories:
    • "As a user, I want to update my profile picture on the app."
    • "As a user, I want to change my app’s theme for better readability."

3. Ensure Continuous Review and Refinement

Continuous review is a key best practice to ensure that the agile epic stays on track and meets the evolving needs of the project. Regular review sessions, such as those during sprint planning or retrospectives, help evaluate progress, refine user stories, and adjust priorities.

• Tip: Schedule regular backlog grooming sessions to review epics and user stories, ensuring the scope remains clear and relevant.
• Example: If feedback from stakeholders reveals that some features in the epic are no longer required, adjusting the scope early can prevent wasted effort and ensure focus on what matters.

4. Maintain Strong Stakeholder Communication

Effective communication with stakeholders is essential throughout the lifecycle of an agile epic. Stakeholders must be kept informed about progress, challenges, and any changes to the scope. This ensures alignment and prevents any surprises as the project moves forward.

• Tip: Use regular sprint reviews to showcase completed user stories and gather feedback on the progress of the epic.
• Example: During a sprint review, the team may present a demo of the "new login feature" to stakeholders and gather feedback for improvements or refinements.
• Outcome: Effective stakeholder communication ensures that the epic remains aligned with business goals and that priorities are adjusted in response to real-time feedback.

5. Prioritize Based on Business Value and Dependencies

When managing agile epics, prioritize user stories based on business value and dependencies. Not all tasks in an epic are equally important, and addressing high-value tasks early ensures that the team delivers the most critical features first.

• Tip: Use MoSCoW prioritization (Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won’t Have) to rank user stories within the epic.
• Example:
  • Epic: "Improve Search Functionality"
  • Must Have: "Add product search filters."
  • Should Have: "Implement voice search."
  • Could Have: "Allow search by image."
  • Won’t Have: "Include search recommendations."

6. Adapt and Stay Flexible

One of the defining principles of agile methodologies is adaptability, as agile epics progress, unexpected challenges or changes in priorities may arise. Being flexible and open to changes is essential for successfully managing epics over the project lifecycle.

• Tip: Utilize Agile ceremonies, such as daily stand-ups and retrospectives, to address issues promptly and adjust the plan as necessary.
• Example: If the team faces technical challenges while implementing a feature under the epic, it may decide to shift focus to another user story or tweak the epic’s scope to resolve the issue.
• Outcome: Adapting to changes keeps the project on track and ensures that the epic can be successfully delivered, regardless of unforeseen challenges.

7. Common Pitfalls to Avoid

While managing agile epics, there are common pitfalls teams should avoid to ensure success:

• Lack of Clear Goals: Without a clear and aligned goal, epics can lose focus, causing delays and wasted effort. Always define the epic’s business value and ensure stakeholders agree on the scope.
• Overly Large Epics: Large epics can become unmanageable, making it difficult to track progress. Keep epics focused and break them into smaller, manageable user stories early on.
• Neglecting Dependencies: Unmanaged dependencies between user stories can hinder progress and lead to bottlenecks. Identify dependencies early and prioritize work accordingly to prevent delays and ensure timely completion.

Now that you’ve learned agile epic best practices, let’s wrap up by exploring how upGrad’s courses can help you apply them confidently in real projects.

Get a Deeper Understanding of Agile Epic With upGrad!

An agile epic is a large feature broken down into smaller user stories, enabling teams to deliver value incrementally. Managing these epics effectively keeps projects on track and aligned with business goals. Focus on setting clear goals, prioritizing stories, reviewing progress regularly, and maintaining open communication with stakeholders to ensure successful delivery and continuous alignment throughout the project lifecycle.

If you're looking to take your agile skills to the next level, upGrad’s courses provide the perfect opportunity to dive deeper into agile methodologies. With hands-on projects, expert mentorship, and real scenarios, you’ll gain the practical experience needed to fill any skill gaps and accelerate your career in agile project management.

Beyond the programs highlighted here, discover additional courses crafted to deepen your understanding of agile epics, helping you break down complex projects and manage large features with precision.

• Master of Design in User Experience
• Executive Programme in Generative AI for Leaders
• Professional Certificate Program in Business Analytics & Consulting
• Executive Diploma in Data Science & AI with IIIT-B
• Executive Diploma in Machine Learning and AI

Unsure about your next career move? upGrad’s personalized guidance provides clear, tailored support to help you progress confidently. Visit any upGrad center for immersive, hands-on training that builds real-world skills and insider knowledge, giving you the edge to thrive in today’s competitive job market.

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References:
https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/epics
https://www.wrike.com/agile-guide/agile-epics-guide/
https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/epic-agile
https://www.youngurbanproject.com/what-is-an-epic-in-agile/
https://asana.com/resources/agile-epic