Epics Features and User Stories—When to Use Which?

By: Hajime Estanislao, PMP, CSM; Editor: Geram Lompon; Reviewed by: Dr. Michael J. Shick, MSPM, PMP, CSM

Are you being challenged to manage project objectives and turn them into actionable tasks? Navigating Agile projects can be overwhelming if you lack the tools and knowledge to break down broad objectives into smaller stories or manageable work items.

Imagine tackling big projects with a path from high-level goals to specific, actionable tasks. With a solid understanding of Agile epics, features, and user stories, you will gain the clarity needed to streamline project workflows, prioritize effectively, and deliver continuous value.

Mastering these elements will empower you and the team to organize work strategically, maintain alignment with project goals, and ensure focus on value delivery. This structured approach to organization within the Agile methodology does not just make project management easier; it enhances team productivity, resource efficiency, and adaptability to change.

Ready to transform your Agile approach? This article will provide details of epics, features, and user stories. Become the Agile project manager who breaks down complexity and drives projects to successful outcomes.

What are Epics Features?

Epics, Features, and User Stories are components of Agile project management. Each group represents different levels of work and helps teams deliver value incrementally.

Epics are high-level goals encompassing multiple features and user stories. Due to their scope, epics span several sprints or releases, providing a broad objective that aligns with strategic goals. An example of an epic might be developing a customer loyalty program, a significant initiative requiring multiple components to deliver. Think of it as a big story to tell.
Features are distinct elements of an epic, each representing a specific functionality within the product. A feature is more refined than an epic and delivers a tangible part of the epic’s objective. For instance, a feature within the customer loyalty program, Epic, could track customer purchases.
User Stories are the most granular, detailing specific user requirements or tasks delivered within a single sprint. User stories are written from the user’s perspective, focusing on the delivery of immediate value, such as:

“As a user, I want to view my loyalty points to track my rewards.”

These tasks are actionable and contribute directly to completing features.

Together, epics, features, and user stories create a structured yet flexible framework for Agile teams. It ensures projects are divided into manageable parts that align with user needs and business goals.

Differentiating an Epic, Feature, and User Story

Scope and Granularity

Agile epics are the largest units of deliverables, covering broad, high-level goals. They span multiple sprints and require substantial time and resources. Epics set the strategic direction for a project by defining the big picture, taking months or even longer to complete.
Features break down epics into smaller, more focused units. Each feature is a distinct part of the product’s functionality, to be completed in one or two sprints. Features are tracked and incrementally create value as part of the larger epic.
User Stories focus on specific user needs. These are written from the user’s perspective to provide detailed individual tasks or requirements that can be accomplished within a single sprint. They provide immediate, actionable goals that guide teams in implementing features and achieving epic-level objectives.

Detail and Specificity

Epics offer a broad overview without detailed requirements, as they are too large to address in a single iteration. Their purpose is to provide strategic clarity and high-level objectives.
Features add detail to an epic, offering specific information about a particular functionality. They guide teams on “what” needs to be built, with more detail than an epic but less than a user story.
User Stories are the most detailed, clarifying the “how” by outlining the user’s needs and including acceptance criteria to define when they’re complete. This format keeps teams focused on delivering immediate value.

Execution and Timeline

Epics provide direction over the long term, setting the scope for multiple releases or phases of development.
Features are released within shorter timeframes, often in one or two sprints, contributing directly to the epic’s completion. Features contribute to working software; in the same way, epics contribute to the overall objective.
User Stories fit within a single sprint, ensuring teams can deliver tangible outcomes continuously while gathering feedback for further refinement.

Reasons You Need to Know the Difference Between Features and User Stories

Understanding the difference between epics, features, and user stories is foundational for Agile teams and project managers. This knowledge enables teams to break down complex projects into manageable tasks, prioritize work effectively, and deliver incremental business value.

Each level—epic, feature, and user story provides a unique purpose. From setting strategic direction to implementing specific user requirements, the levels help teams stay organized and focused on delivering value.

A clear project structure enables a well-organized hierarchy, ensuring high-level goals connect to day-to-day tasks.
Efficient resource allocation of properly defined epics, features, and user stories helps teams allocate time and resources more effectively, ensuring priority work is delivered first.
Improved communication promotes a shared understanding of these components and enhances collaboration between stakeholders, product owners, and development teams.
Flexible and adaptive planning through differentiation of epics and stories allows Agile teams to respond to change more effectively, adjusting scope and priorities as necessary.
User-centricity emphasizes individual user needs, keeping the team focused on delivering value with each sprint while features and epics align with broader business goals.
This structured approach to development team together improves productivity and promotes clarity, adaptability, and continuous alignment with project objectives.

Do it on Your Own Using This Template.

Creating your own Agile epics, features, and user stories helps to structure projects with a clear hierarchy, aligning your team on goals from high-level objectives to individual tasks. This template guides you through each step, ensuring epics, features, and user stories are well-defined and connected, allowing for efficient prioritization, execution, and value delivery.

Define Your Epic, a Large User Story: “Big Picture Goals”

Start by outlining the broad, high-level goals that represent the “why” behind your project. Identify your project’s objectives that will serve as the foundation for features and user stories. To define an epic, it is about the significant deliverables spanning multiple sprints or releases.

For example, an epic could be “Create a customer loyalty program” for a retail app.

Break Down Epics into Features: “Functional Milestones”

Break your epic into specific functionalities or capabilities. Each feature represents a distinct, achievable part of the epic that provides value. Define features that can be developed and delivered in one or two sprints, contributing to the epic’s objective.

For example, a loyalty program epic may include the feature “Track customer purchase history” to enable tailored rewards.

Create User Stories: User-Centric Tasks

Once your features are defined, break them further into user stories. Each user story should detail a specific need from a user perspective, typically following a format like:

As a [user type], I want [feature] so that [benefit].

These stories should be small enough to be completed within a single sprint. For example, for the purchase tracking feature, a user story could be:

As a customer, I want to view my purchase history to track my rewards points.

Set Acceptance Criteria: Defining Done

For each user story, outline clear acceptance criteria to define what done looks like. It will give the team measurable standards for success and ensure the story meets user needs. Acceptance criteria for the purchase history story might include:

“Display purchase history by date” and “Allow users to filter by reward-eligible purchases.”

These criteria clarify expectations and help guide the development and testing of many user stories.

Considerations For Successfully Using Epics Features and User Stories

When using epics, features, sprint backlog, and user stories effectively, consider their relative size and complexity. Epics should be large enough to represent substantial objectives and provide a strategic roadmap for the project, divided into features and user stories.

As a guideline, an epic often spans several months and covers multiple sprints, while features are shorter and generally take one or two sprints to complete. User stories are the simplest units, designed to be actionable and achievable within a single sprint.

Estimating effort is another consideration. While epics are generally too broad to estimate accurately at the outset, teams can assign story points to features and their related user stories as they break down the epic, allowing for more precise planning at the granular level.

Estimating user stories with story points, based on their complexity and effort required, helps development teams allocate resources effectively and commit to realistic sprint goals. This estimation process ensures that teams remain adaptable and can adjust scope as requirements evolve.

Periodic backlog refinement helps manage epics, features, and user stories effectively. As projects progress, user needs or business priorities may shift, requiring updates to the backlog.

Regularly revisiting product backlog and refining each level ensures work remains aligned with short-term objectives and long-term goals, keeping the team focused on delivering maximum value.

Taking it to the Next Level: Combining PMs – Project, Product, and Program Management Techniques!

To take Agile work management to the next level, consider combining project, product, and program management techniques for epics, features, and other user stories. Each discipline brings unique strengths that can enhance the Agile process: project management offers structure and timelines, product management focuses on the user’s needs, and program management ensures strategic alignment across multiple projects. Integrating these approaches can elevate your Agile framework, especially for large-scale initiatives.

Focusing on milestones and timelines in project management can help prioritize epic and feature completion dates, especially when coordinating epic vs. sprints within tight deadlines. Techniques like Gantt charts or timelines can visualize each epic’s progress, helping teams manage dependencies, track progress, and communicate effectively with stakeholders.

Product management adds a valuable layer by maintaining user-centricity throughout the development process. Product managers’ focus on market needs, user feedback, and long-term product vision is a cornerstone for shaping epics and features that directly contribute to user satisfaction.

By incorporating user personas or journey maps, product owners and teams can ensure that each feature and story delivers meaningful value that aligns with the overall product vision.

In program management, aligning multiple epics or projects within a broader strategic framework can enhance coherence and resource efficiency. Program managers coordinate resources and goals across multiple teams, ensuring each epic and feature supports the larger business objectives.

This alignment optimizes resource allocation and keeps individual projects connected to the organization’s strategic vision, creating a more cohesive and impactful development process. Integrating these roles and techniques helps Agile teams deliver strategically aligned and user-focused projects.

Wrapping Up: Featuring Epics and User Stories!

Understanding epics, features, and user stories is essential for Agile project managers looking to lead successful projects. These elements form the backbone of Agile planning, allowing teams to structure work efficiently, prioritize effectively, and maintain a user-focused approach.

By mastering how to differentiate and apply each, a Scrum Master or Agile project manager can break down big goals into actionable tasks that contribute to the strategic objectives and end-user needs.

With these concepts, Agile managers can organize complex projects, streamline resource allocation, and promote cross-functional collaboration. This understanding empowers teams to adapt to change, deliver incremental value, and consistently meet project milestones – critical skills for any project leader in an Agile environment. Embracing epics, features, and user stories is a step toward more agile, adaptable, and customer-centered project management.