Backlog Items

Epics are user-centric groupings of what a user does. They are typically the way we first think of the users’ functional needs; our job is to describe detail.

• Typically, an epic is the highest-level grouping and is not used for estimation because it can’t really be “complete.”
• Epics are large and span multiple value areas, sprints, releases, and features.

Features are system-centric groupings of what a system does. They are useful when having release planning discussions to keep conversations at an appropriate level of detail.

• Features provide a greater level of detail that describes a block of functionality that delivers a new capability.
• Features should be defined sufficiently to be estimable and testable, although small enough to fit in a release – but a feature can span multiple sprints and be worked on by multiple teams.

User stories are short stories about people who use the product. They contain a name, a brief narrative, acceptance criteria, and conditions for the story to be complete. User stories focus on exactly what the user needs without going into the details on how to achieve it.

A description of a user story should include a name, a brief narrative, acceptance criteria, and conditions for completion.

Tasks are the technical work that a development team performs in order to complete a product backlog item (PBI). Most tasks are defined to be small, and represent no more than a few hours to a day or so of work.