Best Practices for Managing Epics and Stories in Agile

Sushant Verma

Managing epics and stories effectively is crucial for the success of any agile project. These elements form the backbone of agile project management, helping teams visualize large-scale objectives and break them down into actionable steps. Below are some best practices to ensure efficient management of epics and stories.

1. Clearly Define Epics and Stories

• Epics: An epic is a large work item that can be broken down into smaller tasks or user stories. It often represents a significant feature or functionality.
• Stories: A story is a small, manageable piece of work that describes how a user will interact with the system.

Clearly defining these elements helps in setting expectations and ensuring everyone understands their roles.

2. Prioritize Based on Business Value

Prioritizing epics and stories based on business value ensures that the most critical features are developed first. Use techniques like MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have) prioritization to categorize tasks effectively.

3. Break Down Epics into Manageable Stories

Breaking down epics into smaller user stories makes it easier to manage work within sprints or iterations. This approach also helps in tracking progress more accurately.

Example:

• Epic: Develop a new user authentication system.
  • Story 1: Implement login functionality.
  • Story 2: Create password reset feature.
  • Story 3: Add two-factor authentication.

4. Use Story Mapping for Visualization

Story mapping is an effective technique for visualizing the relationship between epics, features, and user stories. It helps teams understand the overall scope of work and prioritize tasks accordingly.

Steps in Story Mapping:

1. Place the epic at the top to define the global objective.
2. Arrange features under the epic aligned with specific goals.
3. Break down features into individual user stories.

5. Regularly Review and Refine Backlog

Regular backlog refinement sessions help keep your backlog organized and up-to-date with current priorities. During these sessions:

• Reassess priorities based on changing business needs.
• Ensure all items are well-defined with clear acceptance criteria.
• Remove outdated or irrelevant items from the backlog.

6. Foster Collaboration Among Team Members

Encourage open communication among team members to ensure everyone is aligned on goals and progress:

• Hold regular stand-up meetings to discuss daily progress.
• Use collaborative tools like Jira for real-time updates on task status.

7. Measure Progress Using Metrics

Use product metrics to track progress towards completing epics:

• Velocity: Measures how much work your team completes during each sprint.
• Burn-down charts: Visualize remaining work over time against planned completion dates.

These metrics provide insights into team performance and help identify areas needing improvement.

Summary

Effectively managing epics and stories involves clear definitions, prioritization based on business value, breaking down larger tasks into manageable pieces using story mapping techniques while fostering collaboration among team members through regular reviews backed by measurable metrics ensuring successful agile project delivery.

__ Jimi Wikman

"Epic: Develop a new user authentication system.

• Story 1: Implement login functionality.
• Story 2: Create password reset feature.
• Story 3: Add two-factor authentication."

I would argue that your stories are actually Features and the Epic is a project or an Initiative because these stories are way too big, and the developers will be forced to use sub-tasks to break them down, leaving them with no way to break down their own work.

I see this all the time when non-developers try to break down work, and they do not understand the difference between a story and a user story.

In the example here for example we can just pick the middle one to reset password and with no real thought behind it, you will have the following stories:

• Create a template for the reset password page
• Create a template for result of password reset action
• Create a JS validation for the form input
• Create a backend validation of form input values
• Create a function to send back the result of validation if it fails
• Create function to update the user password data
• Create a function to send back result of the update of the user password data
• Create a function to send an email with password update information
• Create an email template for password update information

All of this can NOT be done in a single story as it contain multiple work objects (stories) for both backend and frontend work.

This is by far the smallest of the three items listed where adding two-factor authentication could be a project of its own depending on how it is implemented.

Always break down work so it is possible to be done by a single individual in the smallest possible task. Use the Jira Issue Type hierarchy to add more levels.

In this case I would say that "Develop a new user authentication system" is a project or initiative and each of the items below are Features, and then you have the break-down of the actual work tasks as stories.

Other than that I agree with the article