Epics and Spikes: Managing Work at Different Levels

While User Stories are the fundamental unit of work focused on user value, they are not the only type of item that an agile team manages.

To manage work at different levels of granularity and address specific needs such as research or bug resolution, other types of work items are used.

Two of the most common are Epics, which represent large blocks of functionality, and Spikes, dedicated to research and uncertainty reduction.

Understanding how and when to use these elements, along with a consistent approach to managing bugs, helps to keep the backlog organized and plan more effectively.

Epics: Grouping Related Stories Together

An Epic represents a large body of work that generally cannot be completed in a single iteration and needs to be broken down into smaller, more manageable User Stories.

They function as a container or umbrella to group several User Stories that are thematically related or contribute to larger functionality.

Epics are useful for longer-term planning (quarterly, annually) and for communicating high-level goals.

Depending on the context, an epic can represent a core product feature (e.g., "Search," "Shopping Cart") or be aligned with strategic goals or OKRs (e.g., "Increase Conversion Rate X%").

Tools like Jira use epics effectively to visually organize the backlog and track progress at a macro level.

Spikes: Research and Uncertainty Reduction

Unlike User Stories that deliver tangible incremental value to the product, a Spike is a type of work item whose primary purpose is to generate knowledge, reduce risk, or answer technical or functional questions.

It is used when the team needs to investigate a new technology, learn about an unknown domain, experiment with different solution approaches, or generally reduce uncertainty before being able to estimate or implement a related user story.

Although they do not directly produce value for the end user, Spikes are valuable because they enable more informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

Including them in the backlog helps to visualize and account for the effort spent on research and learning.

Bug Management as User Stories

Bug management often generates debate about whether they should be a separate type of item or not. A recommended practice is to treat bugs as User Stories.

The main reason is to ensure that the value (or negative impact) of fixing that specific bug is clarified.

Not all bugs have the same impact; some may be crit