Epic
A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller user stories, representing a significant feature or capability that typically spans multiple sprints to complete.
In-Depth Explanation
An epic is a large user story that is too big to complete in a single sprint and needs to be decomposed into smaller, deliverable stories. Epics represent major features, capabilities, or initiatives that contribute to strategic objectives.
Epic characteristics:
- Too large for a single sprint (typically weeks or months of work)
- Comprises multiple related user stories
- Represents a meaningful business capability or outcome
- Has a clear business objective and success criteria
- Evolves as the team learns more through implementation
Epic hierarchy:
- Theme/Initiative: Strategic business objective (e.g., "Improve customer self-service")
- Epic: Major feature or capability (e.g., "Online account management portal")
- User story: Specific, deliverable functionality (e.g., "As a customer, I can view my invoices")
- Task: Technical work within a story (e.g., "Create invoice API endpoint")
Writing effective epics:
- Define the business objective clearly
- Describe the target users and their needs
- Outline the high-level scope without over-specifying details
- Include success metrics or KPIs
- Identify key assumptions and risks
- Break down into stories progressively (not all at once)
Epic management best practices:
- Track epic progress through the completion of child stories
- Use epic burndown charts to visualise progress
- Review and adjust epic scope at regular intervals
- Communicate epic status to stakeholders
- Close epics when the business objective is met (not necessarily when all stories are done)
- Avoid too many open epics simultaneously (focus is important)
Business Context
Epics provide a bridge between strategic initiatives and day-to-day development work, enabling teams to deliver large features incrementally while maintaining a clear connection to business objectives.
How Clever Ops Uses This
Clever Ops structures client projects around epics that map to business objectives, decomposing them into deliverable stories that can be completed in sprints. This approach gives Australian businesses visibility of both the big picture and the detailed progress of their projects.
Example Use Case
"An epic "Automated onboarding" is broken into 12 user stories covering account creation, document upload, identity verification, and welcome communications, delivered over 4 sprints."