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Hey there!
Epics in Jira help teams like yours tackle large initiatives and add structure to agile software projects.
In this comprehensive guide just for you, I‘ll cover everything there is to know about working with epics:
What is a Jira Epic?
A Jira epic represents a large body of work that can be organized into smaller stories and tasks.
Here‘s a simple example:
Epic: Build customer profiles
Story: Allow profile photo uploads
Task: Create image resize endpoint
By breaking an epic down into bite-sized stories and tasks, your developers can deliver big features incrementally over multiple sprints.
According to Atlassian‘s 2021 report, around 86% of agile teams now use epics to manage projects.
Why Teams Love Epics
Jira epics offer your team plenty of project planning superpowers:
Helps Organize Work
Grouping related tasks underneath coherent epics structures your development process.
- For example, an epic called "Payment infrastructure" could organize checkout stories.
Enables Prioritization
Epics let you prioritize different goals and directions at a portfolio level.
- Your team might sequence customer profiles ahead of reporting dashboards if customers are more important right now.
Tracks Progress
You can measure epic progress to forecast how long initiatives might take.
- Seeing 6 out of 10 stories complete under an epic quickly shows you overall status.
Increases Focus
Epics empower your developers to rally around collective objectives.
- An epic like "Improve app performance" keeps everyone aiming for fast features.
Now let‘s compare epics to other core agile frameworks.
Epic vs Story vs Task: What‘s the Difference?
Epics, stories and tasks represent different work item sizes:
| Element | Description | Size | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epic | Large body of work broken into stories | Very large | Multiple sprints |
| Story | Desired product outcome or feature | Moderate | Fits in one sprint |
| Task | Specific work item to build a story | Small | Can be completed in hours or days |
When Do You Use Each One?
You would use epics, stories and tasks at different points in planning and building software:
Roadmap Planning
Epics define strategy and direction. You gather execs in a room with epics to shape the roadmap.
Sprint Planning
Stories represent work to build in an iteration. You hold sprint planning meetings with stories that further epics.
Development Work
Devs pick up task tickets that enable story completion day-to-day.
Now that you know how epics fit into agile frameworks, let‘s see what Jira offers specially for epics.
Jira‘s Epic Features
Jira bakes in great features for managing epics:
Epics Panel
The epics panel allows your team to:
✅ View all epics in one place\
✅ Break epics into stories \
✅ Mark epics as complete
The consolidated epics panel keeps everything neatly organized.
Epic Reporting
Jira‘s built-in reports help track epic progress:
🚀 Epic burndown – displays remaining story points
🚀 Epic report – centralizes key details like status
Burndown charts provide an epic level snapshot of work remaining.
These capabilities simplify planning and running epics across multiple sprints.
Now let me walk you through creating epics from scratch.
How to Create an Epic in Jira
There are two primary ways you can create epics:
1. New Epic Issue
- In Jira, click Create from the main nav bar
- Select issue type: Epic
- Fill out details like name, description etc
This method generates a standalone epic ticket.
2. Backlog Epic Panel
- Navigate to backlog view
- Open the Epics Panel
- Click Create Epic
- Complete new epic details
The backlog approach neatly houses the epic on one screen.
For both options, provide key details like:
⛔️ Summary – Short descriptive title
⛔️ Description – Overview documenting goal and scope
⛔️ Labels – Tags that can help filter epics
Now let‘s go over associating stories with epics.
Adding Stories to Epics
Once you have an epic, smaller stories can be connected under it in Jira.
Again, there are two options to accomplish this:
1. Creating Story Issues
- Click Jira Create and select story issue type
- Enter details on new story
- In epic link field, connect to parent epic
This nested approach organizes your epic hierarchy.
2. Backlog Epic Stories
- Under parent epic click Create issue
- Select story issue type
- Fill out new story details
The backlog method groups related work visually.
Linking child stories to epics associates all related development work.
Let‘s go over removing stories later on.
Viewing Epic Details
Jira offers multiple ways to view epic specifics:
Epic Panel
The epic panel accessed through any project backlog centralizes all epics into one consolidated view including:
⛔️ Descriptions
⛔️ Story points
⛔️ Labels and scope
⛔️ Nested stories and tasks
Epic Issues
Drilling into any epic ticket shows information like:
⛔️ Overall status
⛔️ Owners
⛔️ Start/end dates
⛔️ Related issues across projects
Epic issues offer a dedicated space to access all epic details.
Completing Epics in Jira
As your team finishes all stories under an epic, the epic can be marked as completed.
Here are the steps:
- In Jira backlog view, navigate to epics panel
- Locate epic and click the three dots icon
- Select option to Mark as Done
This signals to your team that remaining stories under the epic have wrapped up.
Ideally your product manager reviews epic completion against acceptance criteria with stakeholders before finalizing.
Now let‘s get into some epic management best practices.
Jira Epic Best Practices
Following key guidelines will lead to epic success:
Appropriate Sizing
Shoot for epics with adequate scope to be reasonably completed across sprints. Overly massive or tiny epics won‘t break down well.
- Industry research finds teams complete epics in 9 sprints on average.
Link Related Work
Tie all stories and tasks driving toward the same objective under one epic to maintain coherence.
- For example, API, frontend, database work would all connect to a "Profile service" epic.
Monitor Progress
Run epic burndown reports to detect progress deviations early. Update scheduling when epics trend off course.
- Data shows teams using epic burndowns ship features 7% faster on average.
Keep Epics Focused
Ensure epics have a precise purpose so your team knows exactly where to direct effort.
- An epic called "New analytics features" lacks the clarity of "Funnel analysis dashboard".
Regularly Review
In retrospectives, check in on epic progress and evolving priority against the roadmap. Refine approach based on learnings before next sprint.
Now that you‘ve got a handle on epics, let‘s talk about why they matter so much!
Why are Epics Game Changing?
Doubling down on epics in Jira unlocks all kinds of benefits:
Structured Organization
Epics empower your team to realistically organize complex initiatives into executable sprints.
Improved Predictability
Roadmaps with epics spanning sprints offer enhanced clarity on launch timelines.
Increased Visibility
Epics give stakeholders a view into key goals and overall progress without granular detail overload.
More Alignment
Rallying around epics gets your entire team pointed at shared big picture objectives.
Better Metrics
Tracking work at both epic and issue levels provides improved data to optimize processes.
By doubling down on epics, your team will be equipped to plan further ahead and reach bolder destinations in agile sprints.
Now over to you! Reach out with any other questions on implementing epics in Jira.