The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) units of work are pretty self explanatory for software development teams but often a stumbling block for non-software teams.
I find myself increasingly suggesting to teams (of teams) that they define, or at least discuss to the point of having a shared understanding, what will constitute a Epic, Feature & Story in their context.
This seems to be an easier exercise if we’re not starting from software specific definitions. So how to think about Epics, Features & Stories more generically than that…
Epics are the largest unit of work. They’re our investment decisions. They’re typically going to ‘move the needle’ on an organization or value streams KPIs. They’re probably bigger than one three-month Program Increment (PI) to implement. They’re likely defined in some ‘lean’ business case that covers expected benefit, estimate of the work, top features and some consideration of what’s MVP versus the full set of features.
Example: The new brand identity.
Features are (potentially) releasable increments of done. They might need a couple of other features to be ready to make sense being released but they’ll often be released / launched / made public on their own. They should not take more than one three-month Program Increment (PI) to implement. They may or may not be part of an Epic.
Example: The Christmas TV advert.
Stories are verifiable (sign-off-able) increments of done that may or may not be releasable on their own and may or may not be part of a feature. They will fit into a single sprint (usually two-weeks).
Example: Poster for the company party.
