Brief summary of this article:
Epic in Targetprocess is one of the entity types in the data model.
Epic is a high-level scope of work which may contain Features. In small Projects, Epics are optional. In large and medium Projects you may want to have one more level of hierarchy for requirements, and Epic can be handy:
Epics are denoted by cyan color.
How Epics are used
For example, you have a large module and several features inside this module. Or you have large feature and break it down to smaller, like Minimal Viable Feature and Minimal Marketable Feature.
More interesting view is a full drill-down from Epics to User Stories. Add List view with the following setup:
As a result, you can see full backlog hierarchy:
Terms
The following custom terms and aliases are frequently used for Epic entity:
- Goal, Initiative, Objective
- Strategic Theme, Strategy
- Program Epic, Portfolio Epic
- Product
- Theme, Area, Topic, Category
- Phase
- Saga
More on custom process terms: Rename Terms (Entity Types).
Parent Entities
Epic always belongs to a single Project. It is listed in Project field in Info panel. Parent Program of the Project is automatically inherited by an Epic.
Epic may belong to single Release. It is listed in Release field in Info panel.
Nested Entities
Epic may have multiple nested Features. They are listed on Features tab. A Feature may be related only to a single Epic.
User Stories and Bugs cannot belong to Epics directly. You have to assign User Stories and Bugs to intermediate Features that belong to an Epic.
Effort and Progress Calculation
Total Effort of an Epic having at least one Feature is always equal to total Effort of its Features.
Total time spent of an Epic is always equal to total time spent on its Features. It is not possible to submit Time record to an Epic directly.
More information:
- How Effort is calculated for high-level scopes of work
- Measuring progress of high-level planning entities
Details View
Epic details view is quite familiar. It has usual properties and contains a list of related Features as well as Epic progress tracking information. So now you can track progress on a higher level:
Epic is quite similar to Feature entity and you can define terminology for Epic, create custom fields, set permissions and customize its workflow:
You can export and import Epics, print Epics, access them via REST API, create Roadmaps with Epics, etc.
Epics Improvements in v3.7.4
'Convert' action for Epics
Now you can convert an Epic to a Feature, User Story or Request. You can also convert a Feature, User Story or Request to an Epic.
In addition to converting, we've also added the possibility to assign Epics to Releases and display the History of an Epic.
Advanced Filters with references to Epics
Advanced Filter for parent Epic for Features:
?Epic is "Epic A"
Filter for parent Epic for User Stories
If on your view User Stories are selected as cards then there are two ways to filter them by parent Epic within their parent Feature:
?Feature.Epic is "Epic 1" ?Feature.Epic.Name is "Epic 1"
If User Stories are distributed by Features, it is enough to filter just Features by parent Epic:
?Epic is "Epic 1" ?Epic.Name is "Epic 1"
Reports
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