How to Leverage an Epic Template in Project Management

By: Hajime Estanislao, PMP, CSM; Editor: Geram Lompon; Reviewed by: Alvin Villanueva, PMP

Struggling to Keep Agile Projects Organized?

Managing large Agile projects can be overwhelming without a structured approach. User stories can become disconnected, making it hard to track progress. Without a way to group and manage them, they create epics that can lead to scope creep, missed deadlines, and inefficiencies in team collaboration.

The Solution: An Epic Template

An epic template is a structured tool called user stories that helps Agile teams break down complex initiatives, align work with business objectives, and track progress efficiently. By structuring epics properly, teams ensure that every user story contributes to a clear, concise title and a well-defined goal, improving transparency and collaboration.

Imagine a Streamlined Workflow

With the right epic template, Agile teams work in sync, stakeholders gain visibility into the product roadmap, and projects progress smoothly. An agile epic and template keeps development efforts on track and enhances collaboration, accountability, and delivery speed.

Let us explore how to structure, implement, and optimize an epic template for your Agile projects. Are you ready to level up your Agile project management?

What is an Epic Template?

An epic template is a structured format used in Agile project management to define and document epics. An epic is a large body of work that can be broken down into smaller tasks, user stories, and manageable tasks, helping teams organize and effectively manage complex initiatives.

Using an epic template ensures:

Consistency in defining and tracking epics
Alignment with business and product goals
A clear roadmap for development teams
Improved communication with stakeholders

This template is helpful for Agile teams, product managers, and project managers who make epics fit and will need a standardized way to structure and track epics across sprints and releases.

Why You Need an Epic Template

Managing large initiatives requires structure, clarity, and adaptability. An epic template provides a repeatable format hierarchical structure for organizing epics, ensuring multiple teams can stay aligned, track progress efficiently, and deliver high-value features.

Key Benefits of Using an Epic Template

Improve clarity by making team members understand the epic’s purpose and scope.
Enhances organization by breaking down complex work into structured user stories.
Aligns with business goals and connects epics to strategic objectives for better prioritization.
Facilitates Cross-Team Collaboration – Helps multiple Agile teams work in sync.
Enables Better Tracking – Allows teams to monitor progress and dependencies easily.
Standardizes Documentation – Provides a repeatable format, reducing confusion.
Encourages adaptability by making it easier to update and refine epics as requirements change.
Streamlines Stakeholder Communication – Gives product owners, managers, and teams a reference point.

With a structured epic template, teams can focus on their specific tasks, deliver value, reduce uncertainty around customer feedback, and align all work with the product vision and customer needs.

How to Create an Effective Epic Template

A well-structured epic template app development team ensures clarity, alignment of organizational and business goals, and seamless progress tracking. You can follow these five key steps to create a template that works for your Agile team.

Define the Purpose Clearly

Before creating an epic, define its purpose:

Why is this epic important?
What business or user need does it address?
How does it fit into the overall product vision?
Give the epic a concise, meaningful title (e.g., Improve Checkout Process for Mobile App).
Write a brief description outlining the problem to be solved and the expected outcome.
Align the epic with strategic business goals (e.g., Reduce checkout drop-off rate by 15%).

A well-defined purpose ensures everyone understands the value of break work in the epic and remains focused.

Break It Down into Actionable Parts

An epic is a large body of work and should be divided into smaller, manageable pieces.

Identify key functionalities within the epic.
Write user stories using the format:
“As a [user], I want [feature], so that [benefit].”
Group related user stories together for better organization.
Use Kanban boards or backlog tools to visualize these stories.

By structuring the epic this way, teams ensure it is workable, trackable, and ready for execution.

Set Success Criteria

You need clear success criteria for the team to understand and measure an epic’s completion and impact in detail.

Define quantifiable goals (e.g., “80% of users complete checkout in under 3 minutes.”).
Set acceptance criteria for each user story.
Align criteria with stakeholder expectations.

Clearly defined success criteria eliminate ambiguity and ensure the product management team delivers measurable value to existing customers.

Identify Dependencies and Constraints

Many epics depend on other features, teams, or external factors.

Identify any technical, business, or resource constraints.
List dependencies on other teams, external vendors, or approvals.
Use a roadmap or timeline to visualize dependencies.

By documenting these factors, teams can anticipate risks and plan effectively.

Assign Stakeholders and Set Timelines

An epic requires clear ownership and a realistic timeframe.

Assign a Product Owner to oversee the epic.
Identify relevant stakeholders such as developers, testers, and designers.
Set a target timeline (e.g., two-week sprint for development, one sprint for testing).

This final step ensures accountability, clarity, customer experience, and smooth execution.

Considerations For Successfully Implementing an Epic Template

While creating an agile epic template provides structure, its effectiveness depends on how it is implemented. Teams should ensure that epics remain adaptable, allowing them to evolve with shifting priorities without losing sight of strategic goals. Agile thrives on flexibility, so while the template offers guidance, it should not become overly rigid or bureaucratic.

Collaboration and alignment are equally important. The best epic templates are not isolated—they require input from product managers, development teams, and key stakeholders. Encouraging open discussions during backlog grooming, sprint planning, and cross-team syncs ensures that the template accurately reflects real-world needs. Regular check-ins help teams refine end user back stories, clarify success criteria, and adjust priorities.

Tracking and continuous improvement are essential. Epics are continuously monitored and not forgotten. Teams should leverage Agile tools like Jira, Trello, or Azure DevOps to track progress, identify bottlenecks, and iterate based on feedback. By regularly reviewing epics, teams ensure they stay aligned with evolving business goals and deliver tangible value.

Here’s a comparative table that outlines the key differences between an Epic Template, a Feature Template, and a Project Charter in Agile project management:

Aspect	Epic Template	Feature Template	Project Charter
Purpose	Defines and organizes a large body of work that can be broken down into user stories.	Describes a specific functionality that delivers value to users, often linked to an epic.	Establishes the overall project scope, goals, and key stakeholders.
Scope	Broad, covering a significant initiative or business objective.	More focused, typically representing a single feature or functionality.	Covers the entire project, including multiple epics and features.
Level of Granularity	High-level; encompasses multiple related features and user stories.	It’s more detailed than an epic but still at a higher level than individual user stories.	Very high-level; provides an overview of the entire project’s objectives and constraints.
Components	Title, description, business objective, success criteria, user stories, dependencies, stakeholders, timeline.	Title, description, user stories, acceptance criteria, dependencies, stakeholders, estimated effort.	Project title, vision, business case, key stakeholders, scope, risks, assumptions, constraints, and success criteria.
Who Uses It?	Agile teams, product managers, and program managers.	Developers, product managers, Scrum teams.	Project sponsors, executives, project managers, and business analysts.
Lifecycle	Spans multiple sprints or releases.	Typically completed within 1–2 sprints.	Covers the entire project lifecycle, from initiation to closure.
Key Benefit	Provides a structured way to manage large initiatives.	Ensures clear definition and delivery of a feature that fits within an epic.	Sets the foundation for the project, ensuring alignment with business goals.
Tracking & Tools	Managed in Agile tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, Trello, or Monday.com.	Tracked in product backlog management tools (Jira, Trello, ClickUp, etc.).	Typically documented in formal project management tools (MS Project, Confluence, Notion).
Flexibility	Adaptable based on changing priorities but retains strategic focus.	It can evolve based on feedback but remains tied to a specific release.	Less flexible; typically follows a structured format with predefined goals.
Outcome	A well-defined epic that guides the creation of related features and user stories.	A developed and tested feature ready for release.	A formally approved document that authorizes the project’s execution.

Taking it to the Next Level: Use Software

Enhance your epic management by leveraging Agile project management software such as Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, ClickUp, or Monday.com. These tools provide:

Visual boards to track epics, stories, and dependencies.
Automation to streamline backlog management.
Advanced analytics for progress tracking and reporting.

Integrating all your user stories and epic templates into digital workflows ensures that it remains a dynamic, evolving, and flexible tool rather than a static document.

Wrapping Up: Epic Proportions!

A well-crafted epic template is an essential tool in Agile project management. By structuring epics effectively, teams can ensure clarity, alignment with business goals, and improved collaboration across sprints and releases.

Want to learn more about Agile best practices? ROSEMET LLC offers expert insights and training to help teams optimize Agile processes, enhance efficiency, and deliver high-value projects. Visit ROSEMET LLC today to take your Agile skills to the next level!

References

Atlassian. (2025). Epics, stories, themes, and initiatives. Atlassian. Retrieved from https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/epics-stories-themes

Atlassian. (2025). User stories. Atlassian. Retrieved from https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/user-stories

Notion. (2023). Agile epics examples: How to manage large projects with epics . Notion. Retrieved from https://www.notion.com/blog/agile-epics-examples

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