YDS: What is an EPIC user story in Scrum?

Today's question explores different levels of Product Backlog decomposition. This time we cover what an EPIC is and how it can break down in to feature and tasks. All of this and more are discussed in today's episode of Your Daily Scrum with Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley.

What do you think about EPICS? Let us know in the comments!

This is one of those Scrum Master interview questions about Scrum that can throw you off. Do you understand what an EPIC is and how they're used by Scrum Teams? These Scrum Master day-in-the-life questions can be tricky. Perhaps some Scrum Master training could help?

Buy Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems -

Join Ryan and Todd in a Professional Scrum Master course:

And make sure you subscribe to the channel!

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide, I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge for you! Thank you for supporting the channel so we can continue to provide you with free content each week!

FTC DISCLAIMER: This video is not sponsored by anyone.

Sharing Scrum knowledge to help you grow as a Scrum Practitioner and to solve complex problems.

#scrum #agile #professional scrum

[NM-xrrw]

Epics in my experience have always been simply a way to identify “really big user stories”. Even larger, a Theme, is a group of related epics and user stories.

Epics are decomposed (think ripping up a 3x5 index card) into smaller INVEST’able stories (cards) which represent the who, what, and why.

But with tools like JIRA, Rally, etc, Epics are often used like themes to group stories (feature sets) together.

To me, it’s more something like this...

Theme > Epic > Story
is to
System > Component > Feature
is to
Outcome > Capability > Actions

Appreciate the content.

[narekmusakhanyan]

These videos are so on point! It is apparent that you know your stuff very well and the valuable advice you give is based on their extensive experience. Thank you both for making this freely available. Thank you so much!

[JordiEilers]

I think an epic is an administrative unit to organize cohesion across (unknown) user stories or features in a backlog. And, that's it. We shouldn't do more with it. A product goal is a product goal and an epic is a tool. If it helps, it helps.

[MrAkkim]

Great segment. I think Ryan & Todd stumbled upon the new name or understanding of what an EPIC is, in that it should now be known and understood as the Product Goal.

[abhishekdixit]

Thanks for another good episode! 👍🏼

Q. What are the different techniques for effective Product Backlog Management?

[kaylaberkley]

I would like to see a video on: Questions to ask the PO and Development team to gauge the culture on the team, Agile maturity, and if they truly understand and value the SM role.

[CS-mqgd]

I'm realizing now that decomposition can create hierarchy in an organization.

PM defines epics and capabilities.
PO defines features and stories.

Rings a bell?

[ascjms]

Great thoughts about epics, great episode guys.

[agileoath]

Love these videos guys! QUESTION - What you say to teams that want to make multiple sprint goals? We are on two week sprints, and my teams are bigger than the recommended Scrum Guide 9-max. As a Scrum Master I try to coach them to focus on one, but they all typically want to have multiple. Thanks!

[Rekettyelovag]

I always thought that epic is a collection of stories and an analogy of literature. You have stories which are exciting on their own, but you can put them together to tell a greater overarching something which is an epic.
In Scrum analogy this can be the Product Goal. But don't forget what is the difference between a story and a PBI and communicate clearly or people get overwhelmed with these terms, and it only causes confusion.

[clange]

Are YDS episodes still being uploaded to Google Podcasts? Thanks.

[obiiokanu]

How do you celebrate with your Scrum team when you have a feature complete

[heathermeyers]

I am totally in for renaming EPIC to Product Goal. So would you suggest that a team only focuses on 1 Product Goal per sprint or can we work on several PG's. In that case, how would the sprint goal be defined?

[gustavodiuana]

Which are the biggest flaws in Scrum ?