Epic Writing
Writing epic summaries, "Done when" criteria, success metrics, and out-of-scope statements
Epic structure
- Goal: the business capability in one sentence — "Enable secure user authentication"
- Done when: specific flows + measurable quality thresholds + security requirements
- Success metrics: adoption rate, performance thresholds, feature completeness count
- Stories list: links to all constituent stories
- Out of scope: explicit exclusions to prevent scope creep
Question 0 of 5
What is the primary purpose of writing an epic in Agile?
A large body of related work delivering a significant business outcome. Epic vs. story vs. task:
- Epic: high-level business capability — "User Authentication System", "Reporting Dashboard" — takes weeks to months
- Story: one specific feature a user can do — deliverable in one sprint
- Task: a technical implementation step within a story
Which epic summary is written most effectively?
Specific scope + who benefits + business outcome is the correct format. Good epic summary elements:
- Capability name: "Enable secure user authentication"
- Scope: lists the main stories included — registration, login, reset, OAuth2
- Beneficiaries: users (access) and developers (OAuth2 integration)
- Business outcome: "safely" + "integrate with external identity providers"
An epic's "Done when" statement says: "Done when users can log in." Why is this insufficient?
Vague — no methods, metrics, or security requirements. Good "Done when" for an authentication epic:
- "Done when: users can register with email+password, log in with those credentials, reset their password via email, and authenticate via GitHub OAuth2. All endpoints pass OWASP Top 10 security review. Login success rate > 99.5% in load testing at 500 concurrent users."
- Which user flows are included
- Measurable quality thresholds
- Security or compliance requirements
You are writing an epic for a "Reporting Dashboard". Which success metric is most appropriate?
Measurable feature completeness + performance threshold. Epic success metrics vocabulary:
- Feature completeness: "at least 5 key metrics", "all three export formats (PDF, CSV, XLSX)"
- Performance: "under 2 seconds", "p95 latency", "100,000 records"
- User adoption (if tracked): "30% of active users generate at least one report per week within 60 days of launch"
- Quality: "zero critical accessibility issues"
An epic contains the sentence: "This epic delivers a complete redesign of the user-facing checkout experience." What should the epic document also include?
Goal + affected users + metrics + stories + out-of-scope is the full epic structure. Epic document sections:
- Goal: the business objective in one sentence
- User segments: who is affected — "all guest and logged-in checkout users"
- Success metrics: measurable outcomes — "checkout completion rate increases from 62% to 75%"
- Stories list: links to all constituent stories
- Out of scope: explicit exclusions — "B2B checkout, subscription billing, and international tax calculation are out of scope for this epic"