Epic templates are intended for large, new pieces of work that will have a significant impact on the product. They should be specific and measurable and written using the user story template. In agile product development, an epic is a large user story that is too big to be completed in one sprint, so epics are broken down into smaller user stories that can be completed in a single sprint and are often used in Scrum.
If you’re starting an agile project or already using agile and want to learn more about epics, these templates will help you plan and communicate work like a professional project manager. For example, an epic might be “Implement user account management,” which can be broken into stories for sign-up, login, password reset, and profile editing.
Understanding What Epics are in Agile
An epic is a large user story that is too big to be completed in one sprint. Epics are common in agile development and are often used in Scrum. In Scrum, an epic is typically broken down into smaller user stories that can be completed in a sprint. Epics are usually new pieces of work, but they can also be stories that are too large to be completed in a sprint.
While an epic can be anything from a new feature to a major refactor, it is typically something that will require significant effort and have a large impact on the product. For example, a common type of epic is a new user story that introduces a new area of functionality to the product.
How to Create an Agile Epic
Creating an Agile Epic is a process that begins with understanding the product, user, and business objectives. Epics are typically initiated by the product owner and added to the product backlog. The product owner will then work with the development team to break down the epic into smaller stories that can be implemented in future sprints.
Once you have a clear understanding of these objectives, you can start writing user stories that capture the functionality required to achieve those objectives. Epics are usually too large to be completed in one sprint, so they are broken down into smaller user stories that can be completed over multiple sprints.
How to get started with writing your own Epic:
- Identify the Problem or Opportunity: Define the specific problem, user need, or business opportunity that the epic addresses. Describe the context, affected users, and desired outcome. Include measurable goals and success indicators so stakeholders and the team share a clear, testable purpose for the epic.
- Break the Epic into Smaller User Stories: Divide the epic into focused user stories that deliver incremental value. Each story should describe a single user action, expected outcome, and who benefits. Aim for independently testable, estimable items that fit within a sprint and map back to the epic’s goals.
- Prioritize Stories by User Value: Evaluate each story by the value it delivers to users and the business. Use frameworks like WSJF, impact-effort, or simple MoSCoW to rank items. Prioritize high-impact, low-risk stories that reduce uncertainty and unblock development early.
- Write Clear Acceptance Criteria: For every story, define concise acceptance criteria that describe expected behavior, edge cases, and testable conditions. Use Given-When-Then where helpful. Acceptance criteria remove ambiguity, guide development and QA, and form the basis for demoable, shippable increments. Use this Epic Development form to create a more sophisticated analysis.
- Visualize Progress With Agile Tools: Use story maps, task boards, and roadmaps to display story relationships, dependencies, and status. Regularly update burndown/climate metrics and Kanban swimlanes so stakeholders see progress, risks, and forecasts. Visualization improves coordination and decision-making.
You can use this easy template made by PM-Training.net.
Breaking Down the Epic in Agile
An Agile epic can be a very large user story or body of work that is eventually broken down into smaller stories. It is important to understand how to break an agile epic down into manageable pieces so that it can be delivered incrementally and does not become an unmanageable mountain of work.
The following steps can help you break down an agile epic:
- Understand the User or Persona: Start by defining the target user or persona for the epic. Knowing who the work is for clarifies their specific goals, pain points, and expectations. This perspective ensures the epic remains user-focused rather than becoming a vague, technical backlog item.
- Identify the Ordered Steps or Process: Next, outline the sequence of actions the user will take to achieve their desired outcome. Breaking the epic into clear, logical steps helps the team see natural divisions in the work, enabling smooth prioritization and delivery of smaller, valuable stories.
- Culture-Map Each Step: Once the steps are defined, analyze each one using culture mapping. This involves identifying what the user is trying to accomplish, their motivations, and possible frustrations. Understanding these factors ensures the stories are shaped around delivering meaningful outcomes, not just tasks.
- Time Map for Incremental Delivery: Finally, map the time required for each step. This helps the team break the epic into deliverables that can be released incrementally without disruption. Time mapping also highlights dependencies, enabling smarter planning and avoiding bottlenecks that delay value delivery.
Epic Examples
An epic can be a customer request, a business requirement, or any other product feature. A product epic is a high-level requirement that helps define the product roadmap. It is a long-term goal that is generally broken down into smaller features, which can be delivered in a shorter time frame.
Agile Epic User Story Template PPT
A business epic is a requirements document that captures the high-level business goals of an organization. It is generally used to define the product vision and strategy. Agile teams usually handle epics by first creating a placeholder in the product backlog for the epic. This is followed by creating smaller user stories that can be completed in a single sprint.
The following is an example of an epic that can be broken down into smaller user stories:
Lean Epic Template Word
EPIC:
- As a customer, I want to be able to buy products from the online store.
This epic can be broken down into the following user stories:
- As a customer, I want to be able to browse the online store
or - As a customer, I want to be able to add items to my cart.
Then it is followed by the task that may be required to execute the action.
Epic Template SAFe
You can use this SAFe Agile template doc to create your next epic hypothesis statement to reach a proper, effective Epic.
Agile Epic User Story Template PDF
How to Effectively Use an Epic Template
The power of story templates is in their ability to help you create new work stories that are relevant to your product or user. They can also help you quickly adapt an existing story to fit your new Scrum or agile process. Here are some tips on how to effectively use this template to manage epics in an Agile environment.
1. Support Your User Stories: An epic template provides structure to create and connect user stories, ensuring consistency and clarity. For example, in Jira, a flight booking epic can be documented with all related stories underneath, making it easier to manage complexity and trace requirements effectively.
2. Estimate the Size of Epics: Templates help you visualize and break down the work, giving a realistic sense of scope and effort. By defining boundaries and expectations, your team can assign timeframes, prioritize tasks, and avoid underestimating large, complex features that require multiple sprints.
3. Track Progress Efficiently: Using the template as a roadmap allows you to monitor how epics are progressing. Stories linked to the epic show incremental achievements, giving visibility into what’s complete and what’s pending. This prevents blind spots and helps maintain momentum toward delivery goals.
4. Communicate with Stakeholders: Epic templates make it easier to share the status of work with non-technical stakeholders. They transform scattered tasks into a coherent picture of progress. This clarity improves trust, reduces misunderstandings, and ensures stakeholders understand both the current stage and upcoming milestones.
5. Generate New Work Items: Templates also spark new backlog items. As you document an epic, related needs and opportunities become clearer. This structured approach ensures no valuable ideas slip through the cracks, continuously feeding your product backlog with meaningful and actionable stories. Here’s how to do it step-by-step:
- First, think about the overall goal of the product or feature you’re working on. What are you trying to achieve?
- Second, consider the users of the product or feature. Who will be using it, and what value will it add to their lives?
- Finally, think about how the work will be divided into smaller stories. What is the minimum amount of work that can be done in order to achieve the goal?
Agile Epic Template Excel
How to Measure Agile Epics
Measuring Agile epics ensures teams stay on track and deliver value. Clear measurement methods highlight progress, expose risks, and guide smarter decisions. Here are three reliable ways to measure Agile epics effectively.
- Use the Burndown Chart: A burndown chart visually represents remaining work over time, making progress easy to track. It highlights whether an epic is on schedule, ahead, or falling behind. This quick snapshot helps detect risks and adjust team efforts early.
- Measure with Story Points: Story points provide a standardized way to estimate effort and complexity. Assigning points to epic tasks allows teams to gauge workload realistically, forecast timelines, and ensure work is balanced across sprints for smoother delivery and reduced surprises.
- Track with Task Boards: Task boards offer a visual breakdown of epic progress, showing stories and tasks moving from “to-do” to “done.” They reveal bottlenecks, highlight resource imbalances, and encourage collaboration by giving everyone transparent visibility into the team’s workflow.
Keep these things in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to creating strong epics that will guide your agile team to success.
Epic Template FAQs
What should an epic look like?
They are typically large and complex, and can be broken down into smaller user stories. An epic can be compared to a product backlog item, or a feature that needs to be developed. The main difference is that an epic is usually too large to be completed in one sprint and therefore, needs to be broken down into smaller user stories.
Why are epics important in agile?
Epics are important in agile because they help to provide a structure for user stories. They also help to ensure that user stories are properly estimated and planned. In addition, epics help to provide context for user stories and help developers to understand the needs of the user.
What are epics in agile?
In agile product development, an epic is a large user story that is too big to be completed in one sprint. Epics are broken down into smaller user stories that can be completed in a single sprint. They should be specific and measurable and should be written using the user story template.
Who should define epic in agile?
The product owner is responsible for defining epics and ensuring that they are broken down into smaller user stories that can be delivered in a single sprint. However, the scrum team may also identify epics during sprint planning.
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Shane Drumm, holding certifications in PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM, and LPM, is the author behind numerous articles featured here. Hailing from County Cork, Ireland, his expertise lies in implementing Agile methodologies with geographically dispersed teams for software development projects. In his leisure, he dedicates time to web development and Ironman triathlon training. Find out more about Shane on shanedrumm.com and please reach out and connect with Shane on LinkedIn.