What is an epic?

An epic is a larger user story that contains multiple stories across different sprints. In agile methodology, every requirement from the client is developed into a user story and is stored in the backlog. When the user stories are larger and cannot be completed in a single sprint , you can create an epic and associate the other smaller work items (stories, tasks, and bugs). Epics are also used when a set of user stories cannot be accomplished in a single iteration. In this case, the team groups all the relevant stories under a single larger user story called epic.

This depicts the workflow of a project. You create multiple epics and associate relevant work items from the backlog and sprint. All the relevant work items are grouped under a single larger user story.  

Difference between an epic and user story

Epic is a larger user story that defines a big chunk of work. Stories are smaller entities that help in accomplishing the epic. Epics are developed during the product planning and then broken into small stories and stored in the product backlog. Let's us take a real case example on how we can use epic and user story in our business. Check out our glossary to understand the key terms.

Business case  

  

Helen runs an online shopping site. Let's see how her team uses epic to create the sign up screen. She names the Epic as  Create Sprint Form , and associates the relevant user stories and tasks.  

• Related Articles

• Create epic

  Now that you know the benefits of creating an epic, it's time to create one.  Navigate to Epics from the left panel. Select Create Epic, if you haven't created any epics yet. Otherwise, select  + Epic in the top-left corner if you have already ...

• Epic progress

  Do you want to track the progress of your epics? Epic progress report helps you track the progress of an epic based on its associated sprints. Using this report you can choose a particular epic and track the number of open and closed work items in ...

• Access privileges for epic

  Epic ADMIN MANAGER MEMBER Create epic Edit epic * Delete epic * View epic details Add new work items to epic Associate existing work items to epic * Reorder epics View all epics in the project Move work items across epics * Epics is available only in ...

• Edit and delete epic

  You can manage all your epic activities right in one place. Edit epic Navigate to Epics from the left panel. Click   to the left of your epic name. Select Edit. Modify the epic details and click Update. Only the Admin, and Epic Owner can edit the ...

• Manage epic activities

  Filter epic Navigate to  Epics from the left panel. Click  to the left of your epic name. Select  Filter . Select the filter criteria and click  Apply Filter . Export epic Navigate to  Epics from the left panel. Click   to the left of your epic name. ...