What are Epics in Agile Project Management?

Epics are high-level descriptions of large bodies of work in Agile software development. They are typically large user stories that can be broken down into smaller stories/tasks that a team can implement in a single sprint.

• A sprint is a regular, repeatable work cycle in Agile methodologies, typically lasting 1-4 weeks. A sprint aims to deliver working, tested product increments in short bursts aligned to an overarching product roadmap.
• A user story is a lightweight description of functionality that will be valuable to the user. It articulates a specific need and benefit a user will obtain from a new capability.
• Each story is given story points, representing a numeric measure of effort required to implement a specific user story. It reflects the complexity, scope (and uncertainty) involved. Not the time duration.

User stories help product teams break down large and complex product features or components into smaller, manageable chunks that can be worked on (and completed) within a single sprint. They typically follow the “As a”, “I want”, “So that” format”:

1. The "As a" descriptor:

This opening act introduces the protagonist of your story – the user. Who are they? Are they the busy accountant yearning for streamlined invoicing, or the adventurous traveler seeking a seamless booking experience? Knowing your audience makes all the difference.

2. The "I Want" need:

Enter the desired outcome. What problem does the user face? What do they long for in your product? Here, you define the objective, showing the user's ultimate goal.

3. The "So That" benefit:

Finally, unveil the reward. Why does the user care about this feature? What value will it bring to their life? This closing act ties the story together, showcasing the ultimate benefit and impact of your development efforts.

And that’s an Epic. From the broad, high-level overview to the nitty-gritty of constructing the user story. Let’s dive deeper into epics so that you can implement them effectively in your teams and projects!

What Are Epics Used For?

Epics have pivotal uses across strategic planning, execution, and tracking in modern Agile product development frameworks. At their very foundation, epics empower product managers and cross-functional teams to architect high-level visions framed around maximizing both customer and business value.

Below are some key benefits of using epics in Agile product development processes:

• Prioritization - Epics allow product managers to prioritize high-level features and capabilities to build. The agile product roadmap can be structured around strategic epics that deliver the most business value.
• Planning - Teams can use epics to help plan out multiple release cycles. An epic provides a thematic structure to group related features under one umbrella vision to execute.
• Tracking - As epics get implemented sprint-by-sprint, teams can track progress towards the bigger goal. By breaking down epics into stories, teams know how much has been accomplished.
• Communication - Epics tell a coherent story around major product functionalities so stakeholders can understand goals and provide feedback.

For example, an eCommerce site might have an epic like “Customer Purchase Experience.”

This epic captures the high-level desire to improve how customers add items to their cart, transact, and receive order confirmations. Related stories would tackle specific sub-processes over time, like simplifying the cart, adding saved payment methods, sending text alerts during shipping, etc.

As each story gets completed in a series of sprints, the overall epic will advance toward full implementation based on predefined acceptance criteria (sometimes called ‘definition of done’).

Five key things to know about epics

Epics are pivotal strategic vehicles that steer the vision and execution of customer-centric product roadmaps in agile frameworks. Detailing tangible epics is critical to anchor ideas firmly to user needs.

1. Epics provide a high-level view of the overall product direction and goals. They capture the significant features that make up an overall product vision.
2. Epics are often written in a user story format: “As a [type of user], I want [goal] so that [reason].”
3. Epics are broken down into smaller, more manageable user stories over multiple sprints. The small stories will build up the entire epic functionality.
4. Epics have no specific time estimate because they represent product functionalities that may take multiple sprints to complete.
5. Epics help structure long-term planning and prioritization in agile frameworks like Scrum and Kanban.

Personally, I use a Scrum template or a Kanban template, depending on the project/team I am working on. It helps get up to speed quickly and provides a clear framework.

How to Manage Epics?

Popular workOS like monday dev or project management tools like Notion provide valuable tools for agile software teams.

Personally, I use monday dev (my company has a subscription) for all project management and cross-collaboration. I like it because we can manage our entire dev lifecycle and collab with other teams – such as marketing – because they find it easy to use (which cannot be said for a tool like Jira).

Here are some ways teams can manage epics using monday dev:

• The Roadmap feature allows product managers to map out high-level epics that comprise their product vision and long-term plans. Epics can be categorized by quarter/timeline.
• Epics can be added as top-level items in the Backlog view. The user stories to build the epic can be added as sub-items.
• Teams can break down epics into user stories under each sprint in a Sprint Management view. This provides visibility into what stories deliver on the bigger epic item.
• Progress on epics can be tracked by updating the status of child stories in each sprint. Teams get visibility into how much of the overall epic has been completed.
• Tags and colors can be used to mark items that belong to a specific epic across multiple views like Roadmap, Backlog, and Sprints.

With robust customization and many agile-specific features, monday dev teams get the big-picture view along with granular sprint-level management.

Why Use the Agile Epic Approach?

Epics are integral to agile software development. They empower teams to map out an overarching product vision and high-level feature sets that can then be systematically executed, sprint by sprint.

Breaking down big-picture epics into small, shippable chunks with clear delivery goals keeps teams focused. It also provides tangible progress tracking - delivering parts of epics incrementally builds up to completing major product functionalities over time.

Conclusion

With the right agile project management tools, teams can plan epics and their derivative user stories in tandem. This ensures alignment between long-term roadmaps and current sprint work. Prioritization is also easier when there is transparency from vision to task.

As epics update with progress during each sprint planning session, the team gets greater clarity on the timeline and scope to accomplish larger goals. While Agile is focused on the here and now, keeping an eye on the bigger picture (epics) is key to building products strategically aligned with business goals (and that users love).