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What are Agile Epics?

In Agile Project Management, an Epic is just another example of a division of labor. Epic is a high-level requirement or feature broken down into smaller user stories, otherwise called a single sprint. Effective sprint planning requires Epics to decompose and further bridge customer requirements and actional tasks in the product backlog. They majorly assist in organizing and prioritizing tasks effectively to align with the overall business goals.

Characteristics Of Epic:

An Epic is a broader requirement or feature larger than the user story and cannot be completed in a single sprint.
Epic bridges the gap between customer requirements and backlog items and converts vague needs into structured items.
As teams develop a better understanding, epics progress and are broken down into more specific and manageable deliverables.
An Epic must be split into smaller stories for further execution of tasks.

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Agile Epic Example

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Let us consider 2 examples to see what is an epic? And how the user stories are created from it.

Example 1: - Maximizing the Training Institutes revenue.

The training institute wants to offer training in different fields that are high in quality and comparable in prices with that of other training institutes offering similar courses. It depends on a lot of factors such as price, duration, quality of training, as comparable to other institutes in the same field, mode of training, experience, and knowledge of the trainers, the study materials, placement supports, membership in the industry, etc.

1: As an owner of the training institute, I want to set the optimal rate for the courses in my training institute.

Let us first discuss a particular course such as Scrum Master Certification for the sake of simplicity and understanding the concept, the same principles probably apply to all the other courses.

The general formula for the rate of the CSM training course can be applied and is as follows,

CSM training course = f(a,b,c.....)

The CSM training course is the function of a lot of factors as discussed above such as quality of training, mode of training, duration, experience and knowledge of the trainers, the study materials, placement supports, comparable to another institute in the same field, membership in the industry, etc.

1a: As an owner of the training institute, I want to set an optimal rate for the CSM course fee based on the historical data of 1 year

1b: As an owner of the training institute, I want to set an optimal rate for the CSM course fee comparable to other institutes in the same field.

and so on...

Story 1a: Tell us about the historical 1-year data of the price in the same institute for the same course

Story 1b: Tell us about the comparable other institutes for the same course.

These stories are fairly large on its own; it cannot be implemented in one sprint. Also as implemented the CSM training course fee first would depend on

CSM training course = f(a)

then,

CSM training course = f(a,b)

then,

CSM training course = f(a,b,c) and so on...

So after one sprint, the system has generated a value that cannot be the fee calculation for the candidates because it considered only 1 factor. There may be more factors to be considered built up incrementally before we arrive at the final fee calculation.

The story 1b: above is too big and here's how it can be split,

1b1: As a training institute owner I want to set a comparable set of training institutes.

1b2: As a training institute owner I want to add the training institutes to the comparable set of training institutes.

1b3: As a training institute owner I want to remove a training institute from the comparable set.

1b4: As a training institute owner I want to delete a comparable set that I no longer require.

1b5: As a training institute owner I want to set a comparable rate as that of my institute.

There are a couple more epics,

1c: As a training institute owner I want to set the fee as per the quality of the training

1d: As a training institute owner I want to set the fee as per the duration of the training

And so on...

Epic example 2: Promotion of E-commerce site.

Before we begin the second example we recommend you to take up certified scrum master online at StarAgile institute and learn the theory of scrum with real-world examples. This second example is a company that sells products through an e-commerce website. The target user is the general manager of marketing who is trying to figure out how to spend the ad budget to promote the e-commerce company. The user's large story that is epic is as follows,

1: As a general manager of marketing, I want to review the historical promotions of the e-commerce site and then build my case so that I can identify and repeat the most profitable campaigns.

The team working on this said this is an epic so they wanted it split further.

1a: As a general manager of the company, I want to select the timeframe to use to find out the historical ad campaigns.

1b: As a general manager of the company, I want to select the type of ad campaigns such as from email, TV, Google ads, radio, and other popular websites for posting the ads, etc.

Then I asked the team whether which one would be an epic and which one would be a user story such that epic needs further breaking down. They brainstormed with each other and came up with the answers, the first one would take only a few days, so we left that, the second one would take few weeks so that needs further breaking down,

1b1: As a general manager of the company I want to see information on emails when reviewing the historical campaigns.

1b2: As a general manager of the company I want to see information on the TV ads when reviewing the historical campaigns.

1c3: As a general manager of the company I want to see information on Google ads when reviewing the historical campaigns

And so on...for each type of ads campaigns.

Now if you consider each of the stories is relatively small as the estimates would be in days and not in weeks. However, each needed a few more level details for a particular ad campaign also called a story's "conditions of satisfaction", which are nothing but high-level acceptance tests. For an example of the TV ads, the further information that was captured and wanted are

- Number of viewers by age range

- The number of viewers by income levels, etc...

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Find the difference between epic and feature and user story. Read our detailed blog

Example 3: Customer Support System

Customer Support System: Epic(the big goal)

The company wants to improve the customer experience by integrating features like support channels, automating ticketing, and quick response times. The goal is to provide customers with an efficient method to resolve their queries, leading to better customer satisfaction.

The team identified this immense epic that needs further breakdown into user stories by Sprints. Sprint is a short period of time (e.g., two weeks ) that the team takes to complete user stories.

1a: Implementing Multi-Channel Support (Since this feature is large, it is broken down into user stories.)

User stories:

1a1: As a customer support manager, I want to set up a chatbot that can handle frequently asked questions before transferring to an agent.

1a2: As a customer support manager, I want to track response times across different support channels.

1a3: As a customer support manager, I want to enable multilingual support for international customers.

By the end of the Sprint 1(approx 2 weeks), the development team might complete:

Chatbot implementation(user story1)
Response tracking system (user story 2)
Multilingual support (user story 3)

1b: Automating Ticketing System (Since this feature is large, it is broken down into user stories.)

User stories:

1b1: As a customer support manager, I want to analyze historical ticket data to set priority levels.

1b2: As a customer support manager, I want to create a rule-based system for auto-assigning tickets.

1b3: As a customer support manager, I want to generate weekly reports on ticket resolution times.

By the end of the Sprint 2(approx 2 weeks), the development team might complete:

Ticket prioritization(user story 1)
Rule-based system (user story 2)
Weekly reports(user story3)

1c: Enhancing Customer Satisfaction Metrics (Since this feature is large, it is broken down into user stories.)

User stories:

1c1: As a customer support manager, I want to send different surveys based on the type of issue resolved.

1c2: As a customer support manager, I want to create a dashboard to monitor customer satisfaction trends.

1c3: As a customer support manager, I want to set up automated alerts when customer satisfaction drops below a certain level.

By the end of the Sprint 3(approx 2 weeks), the development team might complete:

Customer Satisfaction Survey(user story 1)
Monitoring dashboard(user story 2)
Automated alerts(user story 3)

By the end of each sprint, the teams complete the user stories, and the epic is achieved.

Agile Epics Real Case Implementation

Agile epics are large bodies of work that can be broken down into smaller user stories and completed within multiple sprints. They help teams manage complex projects while maintaining flexibility. Here are some real-world case implementations of Agile epics across different industries:

1. Banking & FinTech

Epic: Mobile Banking Security Enhancement

User Story 1: Implement biometric authentication (fingerprint & face ID).
User Story 2: Introduce real-time fraud alerts.
User Story 3: Enable two-factor authentication for high-value transactions.

Implementation (Sprint Breakdown):

Sprint 1: Biometric authentication
Sprint 2: Implement and test real-time mechanism
Sprint 3: Two-factor authentication
Sprint 4: Security audits and feedback

Final delivery: Updates security system with seamless authentication and fraud prevention.

2. Automotive Industry (IoT & Smart Vehicles)

Epic: Develop an Autonomous Parking System

User Story 1: Implement obstacle detection using sensors.
User Story 2: Enable automatic parallel parking feature.
User Story 3: Introduce voice-command parking activation.

Implementation:

Sprint 1: Obstacle detection using sensors in controlled environments
Sprint 2: Parallel parking algorithm to be integrated in the steering system
Sprint 3: Activate voice command for parking activation.
Sprint 4: Conduct field test and optimize real-world performance

Final delivery: After testing and refinement, the autonomous parking system was integrated into the production vehicles.

3. SaaS & Enterprise Software

Epic: Improve User Dashboard for Data Analytics Tool

User Story 1: Add real-time data visualization widgets.
User Story 2: Introduce drag-and-drop customization.
User Story 3: Enable AI-powered insights and trend analysis.

Implementation:

Sprint 1: Develop real-time data visualization
Sprint 2: Implement drag-and-drop features for personalized dashboards
Sprint 3: Develop AI-powered trends and recommendations on user data
Sprint 4: Gather user feedback and improve performance.

Final Delivery: The improved dashboard was rolled out in phases, ensuring an intuitive and feature-rich analytics experience for users.

Conclusion

We have seen 2 examples of epics that are discussed here. Do you want to learn more? We recommend you to take up CSM certification online at StarAgile institute. StarAgile is a training partner of Scrum Alliance Inc to deliver the scrum master certification training online. StarAgile is an industry-recognized training institute that imparts training in a lot of course including the CSM online, what are you waiting for? Register Now!!! And Keep Learning!!!

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