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Glossary
Roadmap & strategy

What is Epic?

An Epic is a large project or feature that is too big to be completed in a single development cycle and must be broken down into smaller, manageable tasks. It serves as a container for related user stories that together deliver a significant piece of functionality to the customer.

When to use it

Teams should use Epics to organize their backlog when a feature requires multiple weeks of effort and involves several distinct requirements. They solve the problem of losing sight of the 'big picture' when working on individual tasks by providing a high-level view of progress toward a major objective.

Example

A SaaS team developing a new 'Reporting Dashboard' would create an Epic to capture all the necessary work. Instead of tracking 20 separate tasks individually, they group them under the Epic, which includes sub-tasks for 'Database Schema Design,' 'PDF Export functionality,' and 'Frontend Charting.' This allows the Product Manager to report that the 'Reporting Dashboard' is 50% complete even though the specific tasks are spread across three different developers and multiple development sprints.

How Planet Roadmap helps with Epic

Planet Roadmap provides a Timeline view where you can group tasks by Epic to visualize their duration, manage dependencies, and track overall completion percentage across your team.

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FAQ

What is the difference between an Epic and an Initiative?
An Epic is a specific large feature or project, whereas an Initiative is a higher-level strategic goal that often contains multiple related Epics spanning different teams or timeframes.
How do you know when an Epic is small enough?
An Epic is appropriately sized if it can be delivered within a single quarter or a few months; if a project is estimated to take six months or more, it should usually be broken into multiple, smaller Epics.

Related terms

User StoryInitiativeRoadmapSprintProduct BacklogMilestoneThemeScrumGantt ChartWork Breakdown Structure

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