Organizing with Epics

Epics let your team plan, discuss, and track larger features or themes beyond individual stories. You can associate multiple related stories with a single epic.

Epics appear in their own panel, and you can expand, edit, and reorder them just like stories. You can prioritize epics independently in the Backlog to highlight high-level goals. Epics are especially useful for collaborating on major features, and for centralizing assets like mockups that span multiple stories.

Stories are linked to epics using a special epic label—these appear purple instead of the usual green. This color distinction is used across Tracker, including in Analytics.

To view the Epics panel, click Epics in the sidebar or use the Shift+E shortcut. To create a new epic, click the + button at the top of the panel, or press E. You can also convert existing labels into epics from the Labels panel.

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Epics Progress Bar

As you prioritize and complete stories linked to an epic, a multi-colored progress bar appears on the epic:

• Accepted
• In progress
• Prioritized
• On ice

Hover over the bar to see detailed stats and an estimated completion date—based on the iteration containing the epic’s last prioritized story. An epic is marked Done when all of its stories (including those in the Icebox) are accepted.

Tip: If you want to mark an epic done but still have stories in the Icebox, consider either moving them to another epic or replacing the epic label with a standard label.

You can click the progress bar or the arrow beside it to reveal the epic’s stories. Alternatively, click Add/View Stories in the expanded view to open the full story list.

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Adding Stories to an Epic

To associate an existing story with an epic, drag and drop it onto the epic.

You can add a new story to an epic in two ways:

• Expand the epic and click Add/View Stories
• Click the arrow next to a collapsed epic, then click the + button at the top right of the panel

You can also tag any story with the epic label to associate it.

Drag stories from the Backlog or Icebox to the epic’s panel to prioritize them while adding them. You can rearrange story order within the epic’s story list by dragging and dropping.

To remove a story from an epic, simply delete its epic label.

For more on how to manage large features, see Tracking big features and themes with epics.