An Epic is a large requirement that is too big for a single Sprint and will be broken down into smaller User Stories at a later point. Epics serve an important function in the backlog: they allow larger initiatives to be captured early without requiring immediate detail. This keeps the backlog manageable while ensuring nothing gets lost.
The typical hierarchy in practice runs: Epic, Features, User Stories, Tasks. An Epic like “integrate payment system” might be decomposed into stories such as “implement credit card payment,” “add PayPal integration,” and “enable payment by invoice.” This decomposition happens during Backlog Refinement as the Epic moves closer to implementation. As long as it sits further down in the backlog, it deliberately remains rough. What matters is that each story after decomposition delivers independent value rather than being merely a technical fragment.
The Epic concept comes from the agile community and was popularized in particular by Jeff Patton’s Story Mapping. It appears as a structuring element in virtually all common tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or Linear.
