Agile epics: complete guide for 2026

Development teams are great at shipping features, but that speed doesn’t always connect to business impact. Teams get work done in sprints, but the big picture goals, like launching a new product line or entering a new market, can feel distant and disconnected from the daily grind. This creates a gap between the work being done and the value being delivered.

This is where Agile epics create clarity. An epic is more than just a large user story. It’s a strategic container that groups related work into a single, measurable initiative. By framing work in epics, teams can see exactly how their individual tasks contribute to a larger business objective, ensuring that every sprint moves a major goal forward.

This informative article walks through everything you need to manage epics effectively. We will cover how to define and write clear epics, break them down into actionable stories, and track their progress from start to finish.

You will also learn best practices for aligning multiple teams and avoiding common mistakes that slow down delivery. Let’s begin!

Key takeaways

• Epics connect work to strategy: epics are strategic containers that span two to six months and break down into 8–15 user stories, ensuring daily work directly contributes to measurable business objectives.
• Split by user value: break epics into stories one to two sprints before starting work. Split by user journey or business value (not technical layers) to ensure each story delivers something immediately noticeable to users.
• Focus on measurable outcomes: when writing epics, define success criteria and metrics (e.g., adoption rates) that focus on business outcomes, keeping the description flexible enough for the team to find the best solution.
• Streamlined management via platform: modern platforms like monday dev eliminate epic management overhead by providing visual workflows and real-time progress tracking, giving teams automatic updates and cross-functional visibility without manual reporting.
• Maintain momentum: follow best practices like setting three to six month time limits, maintaining clear business value connections, and regularly refining the scope to prevent “endless epics” that drain team energy.

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What is an epic in Agile development?

An Agile epic is a large body of work that spans multiple sprints and breaks down into smaller user stories. Think of it as a container for related features that together Agile epic deliver significant value to your users.

Here’s what makes something an epic rather than just a big story:

• Size: takes two to six months to complete.
• Scope: involves multiple user stories (typically 8-15).
• Teams: often requires coordination across different skill sets.
• Value: delivers a complete experience or major capability.

Let’s say you’re building a user authentication system. That’s an epic. The individual pieces — login, password reset, profile management — those are user stories that live within the epic.

Defining epics in modern Agile

Modern Agile teams use epics as strategic planning vehicles, not just oversized stories. They represent initiatives that matter to your business and help connect daily work to bigger Agile strategy.

Different frameworks handle epics slightly differently. In Scrum, epics live in your product backlog and get refined over time. SAFe treats them as portfolio-level investments. Kanban teams use them to group related work flowing through their boards.

The key is that epics aren’t detailed requirements documents. They’re placeholders for conversations about Agile solution you’ll build and why it matters.

Epic vs story and task hierarchy

Understanding where epics fit in your work hierarchy helps you organize effectively. The following table illustrates how the key pieces of the Agile planning structure connect:

This structure gives you flexibility. Some teams add a “feature” level between epics and stories. Others keep it simple. Platforms like monday dev lets you customize this hierarchy to match how your team actually works.

When to create an epic

You need an epic when the work is too big for a single Scrum sprint but represents a coherent business goal. Here are clear signals it’s time for an epic:

• Multiple sprints required: the work will take several iterations.
• Cross-team coordination: you need designers, developers, and maybe other teams.
• Strategic importance: stakeholders care about tracking this specifically.
• Complex functionality: multiple user stories are needed to deliver value.

It is important to note that you should not create epics for routine maintenance or small enhancements; if the work can be completed within one sprint, it should remain a standard user story.

Understanding the difference between epics and user stories

Epics and stories serve different purposes in your planning process. Epics capture the big picture while user story template focuses on specific, implementable pieces.

An epic might be “improve mobile checkout experience.” The stories would be specific improvements: “save payment methods,” “one-click purchasing,” “guest checkout option.” Each story is valuable alone, but together they achieve the epic’s goal.

Key characteristics of epics vs stories

While both epics and user stories are fundamental units of work in Agile, they serve distinct purposes in the planning process. The main differences between them come down to specificity and timeline. Here is what fundamentally distinguishes each level:

Epic characteristics:

• Broad scope: covers multiple user journeys or features.
• Flexible details: requirements emerge through discovery.
• Long timeline: spans multiple sprints or months.
• Strategic focus: tied directly to business objectives.

Story characteristics:

• Specific functionality: clear acceptance criteria.
• Sprint-sized: fits within your iteration.
• Immediately actionable: team can start work right away.
• Testable outcome: you know when it’s done.

How features connect epics and stories

Some teams use features as a middle layer to organize complex epics. This three-tier approach — Epic > Feature > Story — helps when you have large initiatives.

For example, under the epic “user account management,” you might have features like “registration flow,” “profile management,” and “security settings.” Each feature then breaks into specific stories.

Flexible structure provided by advanced platforms like monday dev support whatever hierarchy makes sense for your team, letting you visualize relationships without forcing unnecessary layers.

Examples of epic to story breakdown

Seeing real breakdowns helps clarify the relationship. Here’s a practical example:

Epic: “Implement customer self-service portal”.

Stories within this epic:

• Story 1: as a customer, I can view my order history.
• Story 2: as a customer, I can track current shipments.
• Story 3: as a customer, I can update my shipping address.
• Story 4: as a customer, I can download invoices.
• Story 5: as a customer, I can contact support through the portal.

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Real-world Agile epic examples

Let’s look at how different types of teams structure their epics. These examples show the scope and detail level that makes epics effective planning vehicles.

Software development epic example

Epic: “Add real-time collaboration features”.

This epic transforms a single-user application into a collaborative platform. The following breakdown illustrates how the work might be structured:

• Story 1: as a user, I can see when others are viewing the same document.
• Story 2: as a user, I can see real-time cursor positions of other users.
• Story 3: as a user, I can lock sections while editing.
• Story 4: as a user, I receive notifications when others make changes.

Notice how each story is testable and delivers specific functionality, while the epic captures the broader Agile transformation.

Product launch epic template

Epic: “Launch freemium pricing tier”.

Product launches make great epics because they require coordinated effort across teams:

• Story 1: as a user, I can sign up for a free account with limited features.
• Story 2: as a free user, I see upgrade prompts at feature limits.
• Story 3: as an admin, I can set and modify freemium tier restrictions.
• Story 4: as a marketing team member, I can track freemium conversion rates.

Modern solutions like monday dev help coordinate these cross-functional requirements by giving each team visibility into the overall launch while maintaining their specific Agile workflow.

Cross-functional initiative epic

Epic: “Achieve SOC 2 compliance”.

• Story 1: as a developer, I implement audit logging for all data access.
• Story 2: as an IT admin, I enforce two-factor authentication for all users.
• Story 3: as a security officer, I can generate compliance reports.
• Story 4: as an HR manager, I track security training completion.

This shows how epics extend beyond pure development work to encompass full business initiatives.

How to write effective Agile epics

Writing good epics requires balancing detail with flexibility. You want enough clarity to guide Agile planning without constraining implementation decisions.

Effective epic writing begins by establishing the core user value. Specifically, define what users will be able to accomplish once this epic is complete and articulate why that capability matters to both the users and the wider business strategy.

5 essential components of every epic

1. Business value statement: explain why this epic matters. Connect it to user needs or business goals so teams understand the purpose.
2. Success criteria: define what success looks like without prescribing solutions. Focus on outcomes: “Users can complete checkout in under 30 seconds” rather than “Implement one-click checkout button.”
3. Scope boundaries: be clear about what’s included and what’s not. This prevents scope creep and helps with estimation.
4. Dependencies: list what needs to happen first or what other teams you’ll need. Include both technical and business dependencies.
5. Success metrics: identify how you’ll measure impact. These might be adoption rates, performance improvements, or business KPIs.

Creating clear epic acceptance criteria

Epic acceptance criteria differ from story-level criteria. They focus on business outcomes rather than specific features.

Good epic criteria might be: “All payment methods are PCI compliant and process successfully 99.9% of the time.” This leaves room for teams to determine the best implementation while clarifying the goal.

Avoid technical specifications in epic criteria. Save those details for story-level planning when you have more information.

Epic description best practices

Use a consistent format for epic descriptions. The user story format works well when adapted for epic scope:

• Template: “as a [user type], I want [capability] so that [business value]”.
• Good example: “as a product manager, I want customers to self-serve common requests so that support costs decrease and customer satisfaction improves”.
• Poor example: “implement customer portal”.

Rich text fields provided by advanced platforms like monday dev let you add context like mockups, research findings, or business cases directly to your epics, ensuring teams have the full picture.

Breaking down epics into actionable user stories

The art of splitting epics into stories determines whether your team delivers value incrementally or gets stuck in long development process cycles.

Timing matters. Break down epics one to two sprints before you need to start work. Earlier decomposition often becomes outdated. Later decomposition causes planning delays.

When and how to split epics?

Several patterns help you split epics effectively:

• By user journey: follow the steps users take to accomplish their goal.
• By business rules: separate different scenarios or edge cases.
• By data types: split handling of different information types.
• By user roles: create stories for different user permissions or needs.

For example, a “user registration” epic might be split by journey steps: account creation, email verification, profile setup, and initial onboarding.

Story mapping techniques

Story mapping visualizes the user journey and helps identify valuable story groups. Here’s how to approach it:

• Start by laying out the main user activities horizontally: this establishes the broad flow or journey the user takes.
• Under each activity, add stories vertically from most to least critical: this ensures the most valuable stories are easily identified.
• The top row becomes your minimum viable experience: these essential stories collectively define your immediate release candidate.

This technique reveals dependencies and helps you plan releases that deliver complete experiences rather than disconnected features.

Maintaining epic to story traceability

Clear connections between epics and their constituent stories are essential for accurate progress tracking. Without this traceability, teams cannot accurately answer the critical question: “How close are we to completing this epic?”

Modern platforms like monday dev automatically maintain these relationships, effectively rolling up story progress to show the overall epic completion percentage. Custom dashboards can then display this aggregated information in whatever format best helps stakeholders understand the initiative’s progress.

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Benefits of using epics in Agile planning

Epics solve real problems that teams face when trying to deliver value while maintaining strategic alignment.

Let’s explore some of the concrete benefits they provide:

Strategic alignment across teams

Epics ensure everyone understands how their work contributes to larger goals. When a developer asks “why are we building this?” the epic provides clear context.

This alignment becomes critical when multiple teams contribute to the same initiative. Each team sees how their piece fits into the whole, reducing duplicate effort and conflicting implementations.

Visibility into multi-sprint initiatives

Stakeholders need to track progress on major initiatives without drowning in sprint-level details. Epics provide the right abstraction level for meaningful updates.

Instead of reporting on dozens of individual stories, you can show progress on the handful of epics that represent your major investments. Dashboards provided by flexible solutions like monday dev make this visibility automatic, updating in real-time as teams complete work.

Portfolio-level progress tracking

Epics enable portfolio management by aggregating related work into business-relevant units. Leadership can see which initiatives are progressing well and which need attention.

This view supports more strategic resource allocation decisions. If one epic is falling behind while another is ahead of schedule, you can shift resources accordingly.

Measuring and tracking epic progress

Effective measurement keeps epics on track while avoiding the trap of tracking activity instead of outcomes. Focus on metrics that indicate whether you’re achieving the epic’s business goals.

Epic burndown and burnup charts

Visual tracking helps teams and stakeholders understand progress at a glance:

• Burndown charts: show remaining work over time. Great for fixed-scope epics where you want to see if you’re on track for a deadline.
• Burnup charts: show completed work against total scope. Better for epics where scope might change, as they clearly show when scope increases.

Choose based on your epic’s nature. Fixed-scope compliance epics suit burndown charts. Feature development epics with evolving requirements benefit from burnup charts..

Velocity-based epic forecasting

Use your team’s historical velocity to predict epic completion. If your team averages 20 story points per sprint and the epic contains 80 points, expect roughly 4 sprints.

This forecasting improves over time as teams develop consistent estimation practices. It also helps identify when epics are too large and should be split.

Leading indicators of epic success

Track indicators that predict success before the epic completes:

• Story completion rate: are stories finishing as planned? GAO’s 2024 assessment found that four of ten Agile programs weren’t using required metrics to track software development progress.
• Dependency resolution: are blockers being addressed quickly?
• Stakeholder engagement: are people providing timely feedback?
• Team confidence: do team members believe the epic will succeed?

7 best practices for epic management

These practices outlined below really help teams avoid common pitfalls while maximizing epic value:

1. Time-box your epics

Set a maximum duration of three to six months. Longer epics lose focus and momentum. If something needs more time, split it into sequential epics with clear milestones.

2. Regular epic refinement sessions

Schedule monthly epic reviews to update scope, split upcoming epics into stories, and reassess priorities. Include product owners, technical leads, and key stakeholders.

3. Cross-functional epic ownership

Assign both business and technical owners to ensure balanced decision-making. The product owner drives value while the technical lead ensures feasibility.

4. Clear definition of done

Define completion criteria that include business outcomes, not just feature delivery. Include performance benchmarks, user acceptance, and success metrics.

5. Dependency identification

Map dependencies early and update them regularly. monday dev’s dependency tracking features help visualize these relationships and alert teams to potential conflicts.

6. Value-driven prioritization

Use frameworks like RICE scoring to make prioritization transparent. Focus on business value and strategic alignment rather than technical preferences.

According to McKinsey’s 2024 product team analysis, an Asia-Pacific bank improved focus by using quarterly portfolio reviews to pause or stop 15-20% of capacity by deprioritizing lower-value work.

7. Continuous stakeholder alignment

Keep stakeholders engaged through regular updates focused on outcomes rather than activities. Share progress, challenges, and key decisions to maintain support.

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How to maintain momentum and deliver value consistently

Understanding and avoiding common pitfalls is essential for teams to maintain high momentum and deliver value consistently throughout the life of a major initiative.

• Creating epics that never end: endless epics drain team energy and make progress invisible. To prevent this, set clear completion criteria and strictly adhere to them. When new requirements emerge, evaluate whether they belong in the current epic or a future, sequential one.
• Writing vague epic descriptions: vague descriptions cause confusion and result in costly rework. Always use specific language that clearly explains the intended business outcome and user benefit. Ensure the description includes enough context for the team to make informed implementation decisions.
• Missing the business value connection: epics that lack clear business value are the first to be deprioritized when resources become constrained. Teams must always connect epics to measurable outcomes that demonstrably matter to the organization’s strategic goals.

Poor epic decomposition patterns: ineffective splitting patterns lead to stories that fail to deliver coherent value. Teams should split epics by user value, not by technical layers. Every resultant story should provide something that a user can notice, use, and appreciate.

How to manage epics across multiple Agile teams

Scaled environments require additional coordination to keep teams aligned while maintaining autonomy. Here’s how to manage epics effectively across teams.

Epic dependencies in scaled environments

Identify cross-team dependencies during planning to avoid bottlenecks. Document who delivers what and when. Regular sync meetings help surface emerging dependencies before they cause delays.

PI planning with epic alignment

In SAFe environments, use PI planning to align epics across teams. Epic owners participate to ensure their initiatives receive appropriate attention and resources across all contributing teams.

Cross-team epic coordination

Establish clear coordination patterns without creating bureaucracy. Weekly or bi-weekly syncs focused on dependencies and risks keep teams aligned. Solutions like monday dev provide shared visibility without requiring everyone to work the same way.

How monday dev revolutionizes epic management

The flexible and intuitive monday dev platform transforms epic management by providing structure without rigidity. Teams get the framework they need while maintaining flexibility in how they work.

Visual epic workflows that adapt to your process

Create custom boards that match your planning approach. Whether you organize by product area, team, or timeline, monday dev adapts to your needs. Multiple views — including Kanban, Gantt, and timeline — let different stakeholders see information in their preferred format. Drag-and-drop functionality makes reorganizing epics and stories effortless as priorities shift.

The platform’s customizable columns also let you track exactly what matters to your team: story points, business value scores, dependencies, or custom fields specific to your workflow. Color-coded status labels provide instant visual clarity on epic health across your entire portfolio.

Real-time progress without micromanagement

Dashboards aggregate epic progress automatically, eliminating status meetings and manual reports. Managers see what they need while teams focus on delivery. Built-in burndown and burnup charts visualize completion trends, while customizable widgets display metrics like velocity, cycle time, and epic completion percentage.

Real-time updates mean stakeholders always see current progress without interrupting developers. When a story moves to “Done,” epic completion percentages update instantly across all views and reports.

Seamless cross-team epic collaboration

Shared workspaces bridge the gap between technical and business teams. Everyone sees appropriate information without drowning in irrelevant details. Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Jira, and other development platforms maintain single sources of truth, automatically syncing code commits, pull requests, and deployment status with your epic tracking.

@mentions and threaded comments keep conversations contextual, eliminating the need to search through email chains or Slack threads. File attachments, mockups, and technical specifications live directly on epic cards, ensuring teams have everything they need in one place.

Custom automation for epic updates

Reduce manual overhead with intelligent automation. Update epic progress based on story completion, notify stakeholders of changes, and escalate risks automatically. These automations work quietly in the background, maintaining data quality without disrupting flow.

Set up rules like “When all stories in an epic are complete, notify the product owner and move the epic to ‘Ready for Review'” or “When an epic’s due date is 2 weeks away and progress is below 50%, alert the team lead.” monday dev’s no-code automation builder lets you create sophisticated workflows without technical expertise.

Sprint planning and backlog refinement features

Plan sprints directly within monday dev by dragging stories from your epic backlog into sprint boards. Capacity planning tools help you avoid overcommitment by showing team velocity and available bandwidth. Story point totals update automatically as you add or remove items from sprints.

Backlog refinement becomes collaborative with voting features that let team members estimate story points together. Historical velocity data helps you forecast epic completion dates with increasing accuracy over time.

Portfolio-level epic visibility

Roll up epic progress across multiple teams and projects with portfolio dashboards. Filter by business unit, product line, or strategic initiative to see exactly where your organization’s development capacity is focused. Dependency mapping visualizes cross-team relationships, helping you identify potential bottlenecks before they cause delays.

Executive-friendly reports summarize epic status, budget utilization, and projected completion dates without requiring leadership to dig through sprint-level details.

Transform your epic management today

Mastering epic management transforms how teams deliver value. You’ll see improved alignment, faster delivery, and better outcomes when epics connect strategy to execution effectively.

The key is starting simple and evolving your approach as teams mature. monday dev grows with you, supporting basic epic tracking initially while enabling sophisticated portfolio management as your needs expand.

Ready to revolutionize how your team manages epics?

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