What are Agile Epics, User Stories, and Story Points?

TL;DR

User stories describe what the user wants, epics are large user stories, and story points are measures of the amount of work required to deliver a user story.

Transcript

epics user stories and story points are three terms that are commonly used in agile project management and some of its many methodologies like extreme programming xp and scrum yet if you are not an agile practitioner these terms may seem unfamiliar to you and you may want a simple explanation of what we mean by the terms epic user story and story p... Read More

Key Insights

• 👤 User stories describe what the user wants the product to do.
• 😃 Epics are big user stories that cannot be achieved within one iteration or sprint.
• 😥 Story points are unitless measures of the amount of work required to deliver a user story.
• 🎴 User stories are typically documented on cards, including a title, unique id, estimate, description, and sometimes tasks.
• 👤 Epics are often described as oversized user stories with closely related smaller user stories.
• 👤 Themes represent clusters of user stories that are thematically connected.
• 😥 Story points measure the relative size of user stories and consider the amount of work, complexity, and risk.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is a user story?

A user story is a description of what the user wants the product to do. It is a simple product requirement that represents a user's need or expectation.

Q: How are user stories documented?

User stories are typically documented on cards and include the title, a unique id, an estimate of the work required (usually in story points), a full description of the product requirement, and sometimes a list of tasks.

Q: What is an epic?

An epic is a big user story that is too large to be achieved within one iteration or sprint. It represents a large product requirement that needs to be broken down into smaller, more manageable user stories.

Q: How are story points allocated to user stories?

Story points are allocated to user stories based on the amount of work required, the complexity of the work, the interactions between different components, and the level of risk or uncertainty involved in the work.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• User stories are simple product descriptions that describe what the user wants the product to do.

• Epics are big user stories that are too large to be handled within one iteration or sprint.

• Story points are unitless measures that represent the amount of work required to deliver a user story.