Software development teams often struggle with aligning priorities in sprint planning and tracking progress. Clear alignment is the factor in ensuring a successful outcome. But even for experienced Scrum teams, large projects can be overwhelming, and things can quickly become chaotic.
That is where this Epic User Story template by WordLayouts will help you take control and organize the big picture into manageable tasks easily. This fully editable template will organize user stories, set priorities, and capture acceptance criteria in one comprehensive document.
Before we move on to the features of this template, let us take a moment to understand what epics are and how they help with Agile project management.
What are Epics, and What is their Purpose?
An Epic is a large, high-level goal or feature that cannot be completed in a single iteration or sprint. So basically, it helps to zoom in on the big picture and break it into smaller, manageable tasks.
Epics and user stories
To make it achievable, the epic is broken down into user stories. A user story is a smaller, actionable task that defines how a user will interact with the product. So, think of Epic as a book, and the chapters are the user stories.
To see what it exactly means, consider this example for a simple “project” of logging into a Google account.
Epic: “As a user, I want to be able to log in using my Google account.”
This epic can be broken down into several user stories:
- User Story 1: “As a user, I want to see a ‘Sign in with Google’ button on the login page.”
- User Story 2: “As a user, I want to be redirected to a Google authentication page when I click the ‘Sign in with Google’ button.”
- User Story 3: “As a user, I want to be logged into my account automatically after successful Google authentication.”
Each of these user stories is a smaller, specific task that contributes to the completion of the epic. By breaking down your main goal into user stories, your team will always have the dual vision: the big picture and the details.
How This Template Brings Epic and User Stories Together
So now that we know what an epic means and how the user stories are a core of it, you will see how this Epic and User Story Template helps you with Scrum Agile planning. Available in popular formats of Microsoft Word and the easy-to-share Google Docs, this template is not only easy to integrate into any workflow but is also fully editable.
We have designed this epic template with three epics, each acting as a container for its own set of user stories. Beneath that, you’ll find structured space for user stories, where you capture the smaller, actionable features that make the epic possible.
For every user story, the template guides you to note:
- Priority is set as High, Medium, or Low, so your team knows what to handle first
- Estimate so you can outline effort and time. This is particularly useful for sprint planning and workload management.
- Acceptance Criteria, so you know when the story is truly complete.
Creating an Epic Step-by-Step (and how this template helps)
In the Scrum framework, epics are large, high-level goals that guide a team’s work. This template is developed to support you in staying organized and focused on your goals by dividing each goal into smaller activities. This is how it works:
- Define the Epic: The product owner will define the big picture or the feature. In the template, use the field Title to define the epic, which will act as the container for all the user stories.
- Break down the Epic into user stories: In this template, for each epic, you will find spaces for three user stories. The Product Owner + Development Team will use this space to write the user stories. While the Product Owner has defined the project, the dev team can contribute details, suggest technical tasks, or clarify feasibility.
- Add Priority: The Product Owner assigns priority levels for each user story to guide the team on what to tackle first.
- Add Effort Estimates: The development team fills in estimated effort for each user story, helping with sprint planning and resource allocation.
- Define Acceptance Criteria: This template follows the “Given–When–Then” format for acceptance criteria. The testers or QA team members use these criteria to define test cases and validate that the story works as intended.
How to Review and Update Acceptance Criteria for Multiple Sprints
Acceptance criteria is when you can officially say that the user story is “done.” In Scrum Agile projects, requirements might change as the project progresses. So we must always review the acceptance criteria for each user story as the project moves forward. Here are some tips for it:
- Revisit the acceptance criteria at the start of each sprint. Ensure that they are aligned with any new business requirements and adjust accordingly.
- Collaborate with all team members. The development team checks the feasibility of the criteria, while the Q/A will ensure if they are actually testable and measurable.
- Document the changes clearly. Update the Given-When-Then fields whenever you make any changes to make sure that everything is communicated across the entire team. Thanks to its availability in Google Docs format, you can easily update this template for everyone to see.
- To support accountability in project delivery, make sure that you keep a record of the original acceptance criteria, too. In this way, you will be able to track changes over multiple sprints.
Organize large user stories, set priorities, estimates and acceptance criteria with this editable Epic User Story template for Agile project planning. Available in multiple formats, this template is easy to integrate into any workflow and helps your development teams stay on track. Download today and effectively track the progress of your sprints.
