what is epic in scrum
In Scrum, an Agile framework for project management, an “Epic” is a large user story that is too broad or complex to be addressed in a single sprint. Epics are usually broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces known as “user stories”.
An Epic is essentially a high-level description of a requirement or feature that will take a considerable amount of effort to develop and complete. Given their size and complexity, Epics need to be split into user stories, each of which should be small enough to be developed, tested, and potentially shippable within a single sprint.
For example, consider a project to create an online e-commerce platform. An Epic for this project could be “Build a Product Recommendation System”. This Epic could then be divided into numerous user stories, such as:
- “As a user, I want to see products related to my recent searches, so that I can find items of interest more easily.”
- “As a user, I want to see product recommendations based on my past purchases, so I can discover new products I might like.”
- “As a user, I want to see product recommendations based on what similar users have bought, so I can discover popular items.”
Each of these user stories is a distinct piece of functionality contributing towards the larger goal encapsulated by the Epic. By breaking down Epics into user stories, Scrum teams can manage their work more effectively and deliver value incrementally and continuously.
