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How to Write an Epic and Manage its Complexity

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

Managing large initiatives while staying agile can feel like juggling many tasks. Writing epics can get complicated, causing bottlenecks and delaying progress. But what if there were a simple way to streamline your process?

Agile epics and user stories provide the structure to break down complex projects into manageable steps. Whether you are a project manager or Scrum Master, learning to write epics without complexity will make your team aligned, efficient, and focused on delivering value, one sprint at a time.

Imagine being able to create epics to keep your project moving, empower your team, and ensure steady progress. No more missed deadlines or confused priorities—just a clear path toward your goals, with everyone on the same page.

Ready to take your Agile processes to the next level? Discover how to write epics without the complexity and see examples of how technology can enhance your team’s performance.

What is Agile Epics?

An Agile epic is a work broken down into smaller, more manageable user stories. It is a high-level requirement or feature that spans multiple sprints, guiding teams through strategic and tactical initiatives.

Typically, epics represent a significant piece that aligns with a product or project’s organizational goals, helping to maintain a focus on delivering value to end users over time. By breaking epics into smaller stories, Agile teams can iteratively deliver parts of the same epic while continuously improving and adapting.

Agile Epics versus Project Deliverables

Agile epics and project deliverables serve different functions within the project. Agile epics outline a broad goal or feature to be developed over time. They span multiple sprints and break into smaller, actionable user stories focusing on value increments. In contrast, project deliverables are tangible outcomes that a project must achieve by its conclusion, such as a completed feature or a product ready for release.

In Agile projects, epics are broken down into user stories and delivered iteratively. This approach differs from traditional project management, where deliverables are more structured and defined by the project scope, schedule, and budget. Project deliverables are well-defined outcomes to be completed at the end of the project. At the same time, epics allow for flexibility and iterative improvement, making them suitable for Agile environments where requirements may evolve.

Illustration of a team in an office setting discussing user stories under a larger "EPIC" category. Charts, gears, and icons symbolize collaboration and workflow, with diverse group members working on computers and discussing projects.

Reasons You Need to Know Agile Epics and User Stories

Understanding Agile epics and user stories is a skill for project managers, Scrum Masters, or Agile team members because they form the backbone of Agile project management. Epics help teams visualize large-scale objectives, while user stories break these into smaller, actionable steps implemented within individual sprints.

Estimating User Stories Contributing to the Overall Epic

User story estimation is just as important as the epic’s central theme. Accurately estimating these smaller tasks ensures teams can plan sprints effectively and make steady progress toward completing the larger epic.

Without proper estimation, epics can become bottlenecks, causing delays and creating an overwhelming backlog of work. Agile teams use techniques such as story points and relative estimation to ensure each user story fits appropriately within the scope of the epic and contributes to the overarching goal.

  • Alignment with strategic goals, the broader vision, or product strategy, and keeping the team focused on delivering value that matters.
  • Incremental progress for user stories allows teams to deliver smaller chunks of work in sprints, ensuring constant progress and quick value delivery to stakeholders.
  • Improved collaboration via user stories encourages cross-team collaboration by clarifying what needs to be done, improving communication, and preventing scope creep.
  • Accurate planning and estimation aid in precise sprint planning, ensuring that teams can deliver on time and avoid overloading their capacity.
  • Epics and user stories’ flexibility and adaptability allow teams to adjust their plans as new information or changes arise, maintaining agility in the development process.
  • Tracking and Measuring Success: Epics provide a high-level view of progress, while user stories offer granularity and measure the success of specific features or improvements.

Flowchart illustrating aspects of user stories with icons showing people collaborating, story points, planning, and sizing. Features include diagrams, symbols of text bubbles, a t-shirt sizing chart, and a group discussing at a table labeled "EPIC.

Ways to Estimate User Stories to Support the Project’s Agile Epics

Estimating user stories is a practice in Agile project management. It allows teams to gauge the effort required to complete tasks that support an overarching epic. Proper estimation ensures effective sprint planning and steady progress.

The techniques teams use offer different ways to evaluate story size and complexity. Common techniques include Planning Poker, T-shirt Sizing, Fibonacci Sequence, and Bucket System.

Below are some methods for estimating user stories and a brief introduction. Each technique serves a unique purpose, helping Agile teams accurately plan while cultivating collaboration.

Planning Poker

Planning Poker is an estimation technique that involves the whole team. It is designed for multiple teams to build consensus on story points by having each team member independently estimate the effort required for a user story.

  • Each team member selects a card with a number representing the estimated effort for the story (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 using the Fibonacci sequence).
  • Team members reveal their cards simultaneously.
  • If estimates vary, a discussion follows to explain the reasoning. Team members re-estimate until they converge on a consensus.

This method promotes accuracy and encourages communication within the development team about story complexity and potential risks.

T-Shirt Sizing

T-shirt sizing is a simple and fast technique for estimating the effort or complexity of your user stories using broad categories, such as small, medium, large, and extra large. It is relevant for high-level planning when precise estimates are not necessary.

  • Assign each user story a size based on its relative complexity or effort.
  • Discuss why a story falls into a specific size and compare it to other user stories.
  • Adjust any outliers based on team feedback, ensuring stories fit into clear categories.

This method works well in the early stages if the team needs rough estimates to prioritize work but does not have detailed requirements yet.

Fibonacci Sequence

The Fibonacci Sequence is utilized in Agile for assigning story points, especially in Planning Poker. It reflects that it becomes harder to estimate with precision as complexity increases, so the gaps between numbers grow.

  • Assign Fibonacci numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.) to represent effort levels.
  • Discuss each story, assigning a number corresponding to its relative size or complexity.
  • Adjust estimates based on team discussions, recalibrating the complexity of other stories as you go.

The Fibonacci sequence helps avoid analysis paralysis by ensuring teams do not waste time trying to get overly precise with estimates.

Bucket System

The Bucket System is a fast estimation technique ideal for large backlogs. It groups all your user stories into predefined buckets, representing story points or relative sizes grouping user stories.

  • Create a set of buckets representing effort (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 story points).
  • Place each user story in a bucket based on the team consensus.
  • Review the bucketed stories and adjust any outliers that seem incorrectly sized.

This technique is useful for quickly estimating many user stories while ensuring relative consistency between story sizes.

A flowchart titled "EPIC: Successfully Writing Agile Epics" with best practices, objectives, user needs, and prioritization. It includes illustrations of people working on computers, gears, charts, and documents related to project management.

Considerations For Successfully Writing Agile Epics

When writing Agile epics, consider clarity and communication. Ensure the epic’s objective is clearly defined and easily understood by team members and stakeholders. It helps align the team with strategic goals and reduces confusion during implementation. Including a concise, outcome-focused title and an easily understandable narrative can make the epic more actionable.

Another aspect is flexibility in scope. While an epic outlines a significant chunk of work, it should remain flexible as the project progresses. New insights, customer feedback, or technical challenges might require adjusting the epic; acceptance criteria are considered for finer controls. Agile teams must refine user stories or modify the scope to keep alignment with emerging needs.

Prioritization and success metrics play a role. Epics are prioritized based on their alignment with business objectives and potential to deliver value. Additionally, defining clear success metrics ensures the team can measure the impact of the epic once it is delivered, linking it back to organizational goals.

Clarity, flexibility, estimation, and prioritization contribute to a better version of your epics.

A vibrant illustration of a diverse group of professionals in a modern office, surrounding a large screen displaying various data charts and infographics. People are engaging with laptops and tablets, discussing and collaborating on projects.

Taking it to the Next Level – Collaboration Software to Streamline Your Process!

Elevate your Agile epic and user story management, leveraging collaboration software like Jira and Confluence to make a significant impact. Jira allows you to create, track, and manage epics and user stories with detailed workflows, helping teams prioritize tasks, assign work, and track progress in real time. Its integration with other tools like GitHub and Slack enables seamless communication between development teams, making collaboration more efficient.

Confluence, on the other hand, is a documentation and knowledge-sharing platform that complements Jira. It allows teams to collaboratively create and update documentation related to epics, user stories, and project requirements. Confluence ensures everyone can access the latest project updates by housing relevant information in one place, reducing miscommunication and aligning teams toward shared goals.

Using these tools together, teams can enhance transparency in product management, streamline workflows, and ensure every epic and user story is well-documented, thoroughly discussed, and executed efficiently. This integration ultimately leads to better project outcomes and more streamlined Agile processes.

An illustration showing paths divided by a reflective river, with signposts labeled "Epic," "User Stories," "Team Stories," "Prioritization," "Goal Alignment," and "User Stories." Two figures stand on a path, surrounded by a sunset landscape.

Final Thoughts: Epics and User Stories as Guideposts

Agile epics and user stories are tools for breaking down complex projects into manageable, incremental steps. By understanding how to write and estimate effectively, teams can focus on their long-term goals while ensuring continuous progress through shorter sprints.

Estimation techniques like Planning Poker, T-shirt Sizing, Fibonacci Sequence, and the Bucket System empower teams to gauge complexity accurately, leading to better planning and execution.

Collaboration software like Jira and Confluence takes this process to the next level by providing structured platforms to track, manage, and document epics and stories, ensuring alignment and transparency. When used together, these practices and tools enable Agile teams to deliver value iteratively, adapt quickly to changes, and stay on course toward achieving their strategic goals.

References

Exner, K. (2024, February). What is an agile epic? Best practices, template & example. The Product Manager. https://theproductmanager.com/topics/agile-epic/

Noori, R. (2024, June). A guide to Agile epics: Definitions, examples, and best practices. monday.com. https://monday.com/blog/rnd/agile-epics/

Product Plan. (2024). How to write an epic (for product managers). Product Plan. Retrieved October 2024, from https://www.productplan.com/learn/how-to-write-an-epic/

Rehkopf, M. (2024). Agile epics: Definition, examples, and templates. Atlassian. Retrieved October 2024, from https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/epics

Thakkar, B. (2022, July). What is an epic in agile? Complete guide with examples. LogRocket. https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/what-is-an-epic-in-agile-guide-examples/

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A woman sits at a table in a modern workspace, smiling at the camera. Around her, other people are engaging with digital tablets and smartphones, suggesting a collaborative environment. She appears cheerful and engaged in the ongoing activities.
Two men are at a counter with a laptop. The man on the left, wearing a dark suit and glasses, is pointing at the laptop screen while the man on the right, wearing an orange shirt and glasses, is smiling and looking at the screen. They appear to be having a discussion.
A group of five people are gathered in a conference room. One person stands at a whiteboard, presenting. Four others are seated around a table, taking notes and engaging. A large screen and various office supplies are in the background.
Two professionals, a man in a blue suit and red tie, and a woman in a light grey outfit, smile confidently in a modern office with large windows and natural light. The atmosphere appears bright and welcoming.
Two women sit closely together at a table, engaged in discussion while looking at a laptop screen. One woman, wearing a headscarf and denim jacket, points at the screen, while the other woman, in a black top, gestures towards the laptop.
A group of six people are gathered around a table, focused on laptops and a screen. They appear to be engaged in a collaborative discussion or meeting in a bright, casual office setting. A mix of notebooks, coffee mugs, and water bottles are on the table.

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