Epics: Purpose, structure, and content
Tags: agile, beginners
Published: 2022-11-07 16:36:29

✅ Epic User Stories, often called “Epics”, are simply User Stories which are too large to fit into an individual development timebox (“Sprint”, in the Scrum methodology).

❌ Epic User Stories are not themes which group together individual User Stories, new product features such a modules, or buckets of time to collect recorded time against.

## The purpose of an Epic 🎞
The purpose of an Epic is similar to a typical User Story - an informal description of a user’s requirement, written in natural language relevant to the business domain. However, an Epic is less constrained by development capacity or process, so may describe a requirement a little broader and looser than required in a typical User Story.


## The structure and content of an Epic 🧬
Epic User Stories, much like any other User Story, typically begin with a card describing the user’s problem, such as the “Connextra” template:

> As a user persona
> I want capability
> So that business benefit

They will also have acceptance criteria like a typical User Story, to inform the test cases that are run to verify that the conditions to fulfil the user story have been met, as in the “Gherkin” template:

> Given pre-condition
> When user action
> Then outcome

## User Story mapping 📌
A process known as User Story mapping is often used by software development teams to sketch out a user’s journey through the system, break that down into Epics, and then break the (must have) Epics within it down into User Stories (of any priority).

See an example below for a holiday story map. Note that this might differ based on the scenario at hand and the needs of the customer. For example, if the customer had experience operating a boat, they might rent their own, and then a captain is not a must have!

[Example story map on Diagrams.net](https://viewer.diagrams.net/?tags=%7B%7D&highlight=0000ff&edit=_blank&layers=1&nav=1&title=Example%20Story%20Map.drawio#R7Vxdc5s4FP01fuyMARs7j4mbNvuQmW3Jbmf2TYaL0VhGVBZxvL9%2BJb4cuLSTnQZLxn0yvoCFzuF%2BnIvwxFvtXj4LkiWPPAI2cafRy8T7OHFdx5%2FeqA9tOZaWmeeXho2gUXXQyRDQf6EyTitrTiPYtw6UnDNJs7Yx5GkKoWzZiBD80D4s5qw9akY2gAxBSBi2fqORTErr0l2c7A9AN0k9suNXE96R%2BuBqJvuERPzwyuTdT7yV4FyWW7uXFTANXo1Led6nH%2BxtLkxAKt9yAmNpsADCj8FN8vgX34vv%2F3z5UP3KM2F5NeEnQZ4LDiXXEKaRRk3wnbYkoJmEvaQpkZSn1cTksUZL8DyNQA84nXh3h4RKCDIS6r0HdX8oWyJ3TH1z1GZMGVtxxkVxrhfNYRnNlH0vBd%2FCqz1Ld%2B35vtpTXSwICS8%2FRMFpsFU3JfAdSHFUh1QnLCs2ju2vhxO3Tk1Y8opXv7KR6nbaND98QlxtVKD%2FDwJcRMBtGPLdjkeXirDvWgax1wOxpM9UUhVYLg9fZ2obwDMcRBLY9YCrJi3bCLaRSnkKHVgrE2F0k6qvoQIJlP1OQ0hVmL6tduxoFOlheilrkxrzVAbVRTn19zLxOMv34ejDvE3RzRxR5Pcw5A3F0BwxNHF9JqvJt0jyv%2Be83vFhX8Byqw5w3OylwKber7Y2%2BvMryFykOjsIQtM6b5SpglCRcSHrsdSll8OVZ%2F6i771izcW%2BGMexG4Z9vhj5a38%2BTDZxFqZd0UdEf2J62F8NdDaA7c5sQ3uBM0t9x08TLssyqvCEtLgad7qGmAttiFlpuXhWuunePCtLxMrfChhSVP9CD6gvDmA7AvAX1gWgGwR%2BkHKxVWfSdDMCxFH1ZR7yWiq%2FwvyOE1mkZJqNAXPHutvc6RHOuuYt57UdEfaedVnXwZp5dQzL%2BDIa2OdT62DHOvo%2Bo%2BFvlXfiaGlY5jlYiQdJLiXTcWmd7yc%2F7upV5erFO87MPr%2FB4juQXPQ1n67Wc9wels7rOVg4v1uH5DHf6x94IM%2FVkXf5sRyKajdUNG1BC%2FTzN0kiAsu41yX9cAnreJAmiTvHUfLMHol1%2B7uRHSQ8Z1GL7gCIpneaAtHyE0iYqA%2Bu4q4wQTo40RwWfaTf%2BAuPDNMZa6pIc6TjtsC7kb5CnH%2BFWMA%2B2Sm0NPU8bRJt1SY10BFdhtCff9fL%2BWw%2BHYT3mWucd9yR%2BB3Z3ymydzuy5kN7Pdjv0D5caO%2By3khVc6zjbsxwPv4ZZKOjmm5%2FMVWeC30zoB7%2Ftbi%2F%2BSTv4tbQkO7%2FCIS1s7s5yg35vvHFBy5uSw3n%2Bw%2B8uAPWZLPR68bUFldYR9fj4ubrORf3uIZ08VuqE3vI04jq9VhFk3mszt3tnVlA9oALV669eO%2BybUHxPmATrse1nzhlhhg2488WFOoDdt6QP5fs1Ks%2Bmpx9Lf5sQTWOW24VSckp6KoCSiXVfcMTKBCO%2BqHG5TPSXRplQYTFzbC6d3mi5L5hYLop4qPWNkUZxA9a6QiunxtefKeyy455f6mfbv2UnU8CCuEhgGxjsh94CaERJszXnR5uKF0lE%2BYrBg93dK4qh3RXeJrPIR5uuDTFtUVJ5DwldpceC5JI3xogRM83GtMRwm9B5sAdC5w5VgxIqh8RXXzC6BJgQcLATQRMQKBnqD63cBwjCcab8h7W%2BVeVtdFbAhak7TeI8RUXQr9Er7j4ntNMr14ZIxkWJGmswxEZf6QKlTyUfNg8YYgD85m6vgmuNkZ136oxH6NmWHYjSgI1VqkriiUYIclk9d5xUj6QJaOIWc7SsSxmzbAS7xEW7YWPFy8wEA8WxK036e%2Fm4dYYKLBNY8ywxsYa44nnOmMUf2A0KA3nERmYBuMqY4a1NkoXT%2FVj%2FBEm8O6rmRYkcCy%2BcU1FtzpR61kSNmyAOhMP3Xc1LeAB628coP4kYbF2bcrytFi3nAnQs47GEK26vmFB%2FYQFOObkSw659o79Vr%2FGfFqEND5CLCik3iDCH4DtYBSCohukzDtE%2FQ7ozwvZ2ywTPBOUSO0XIeMyGfqfRM5U13YZMe8Rc6y%2FexjRTy90KXUAUr7ocloeOwq90eVlSL2hvp7%2BAbTY9%2Bp%2FVL37%2FwA%3D)