The short answer
An epic is a large piece of work that is too big to do in one go, so the team splits it into smaller tickets. Atlassian's definition is short: an epic is the work type teams use to capture a large body of work, essentially a large user story broken down into smaller stories. A "Receipts redesign" epic, for example, might hold a story for a new layout, a bug about a fee shown twice and a task to update the help pages.
The epic itself is not where the work happens. The work happens in the tickets inside it; the epic shows how far along the whole goal is.
Where epics sit
By default, Jira has three levels of work:
- Epics, the big goals at the top.
- Stories, tasks and bugs in the middle, the everyday tickets.
- Subtasks at the bottom, small pieces of one ticket.
Jira Premium and Enterprise can add more levels to this hierarchy. If you are not sure whether a ticket is a story, task or bug, the work type guide has a quick test.
Why teams use epics
- The big picture. A board shows dozens of tickets. Grouping them by epic shows which goal each one serves.
- Progress. When most of an epic's tickets are done, the goal is nearly done, which is what managers and stakeholders usually want to know.
- Planning across sprints. A sprint is a fixed period of one month or less, according to the Scrum Guide. Epics are usually bigger than that, so their tickets spread over several sprints while the epic ties them together.
How work is linked to an epic
In current Jira Cloud, a story, task or bug points to its epic through its parent: the epic is the parent, and the tickets are its children. When you create or open a ticket, look for the parent or epic field and pick the epic there. Atlassian's help on epics shows the same relationship from the search side: you use the parent field to find an epic's work items.
Many boards also show the epic as a small coloured label on each card, so you can see the grouping at a glance.
How to see everything in an epic
Open the epic ticket: it lists its child work items. To search for them instead, use the query language with the epic's key:
parent = PAY-120
Replace PAY-120 with your epic's key. The result is every ticket that belongs to that epic, which you can sort or save as a filter.
You may see an "Epic Link" field in older guides. The idea is the same: it connects a ticket to its epic.
Epic vs story vs sprint
| Thing | What it is | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Epic | A goal made of many tickets | Weeks to months |
| Story | One thing users need | Fits in a sprint |
| Sprint | A fixed time box the team works in | One month or less |
An epic is work; a sprint is time. One epic's tickets can land in many sprints, and one sprint can hold tickets from several epics.
What makes a good epic
- A name that states the goal, such as "Receipts redesign", not a vague bucket such as "Misc fixes".
- A description that says why the work matters and how the team will know it is finished.
- An end. An epic that never finishes stops telling anyone anything about progress.
Atlassian also notes that "epic" is just the default name and can be renamed, and that one epic can span more than one space when a board includes several. If your team's epics look different, the idea is still the same.
To get used to how epics, labels and tickets connect, it helps to link a few tickets yourself. Agile Board Practice has a lesson where you create a story and link it to an epic on a practice board, and the beginner's guide covers the everyday basics around it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an epic and a story in Jira?
An epic is a large goal made of many tickets. A story is one thing users need, small enough to finish in a sprint. Stories sit under an epic.
How do I see all the tickets in an epic?
Open the epic to see its child work items, or search with parent = followed by the epic's key, for example parent = PAY-120.
Can an epic be in a sprint?
Its tickets are planned into sprints. The epic itself usually spans several sprints, because a sprint is one month or less and epics tend to be bigger.
Which field connects a ticket to its epic?
In current Jira Cloud the epic is the ticket's parent. Atlassian's epic help uses the parent field to search for an epic's work items.
Can an epic include work from more than one space?
Yes. Atlassian notes that an epic can span more than one space when multiple spaces are included in the board.