clarify the concepts of Feature, Epic and User Story

1. Methodology
clarify the concepts of Feature and Epic, User Story
Even if it isn’t always crucial to name correctly things,
I noticed people are confused about the concept of feature & epic/user story
Key points: to estimate an IT project cost, you need the list of the main features not the complete backlog of your Epic and User Stories.
But to get the feature list, it might help you to start list the Epic & User Stories (no need to complete it otherwise you are in waterfall
model and even bad waterfall model …)
Feature = capacity to do
= action
= verb
Example: capture data, store data, book a deal, purchase a good, …
Epic = big User Story
User Story = As a [role], I want to do [feature], so that [purpose]
User Story = feature used in a specific context
Example:
• Feature: capacity to book a hotel on the website
• User story: as a Premium Customer, I book my hotel using my loyalty points so that we can retain me
• Epic: As a Premium Customer, I can take advantage of my loyalty points so that we can retain me

2. Methodology
Story Map: where are the Feature, Epic, User Story?
• I’m fond of Story Map because this template shows explicitly the rationale of the prioritization: why X is more important than Y
• X and Y might be a Release, a feature, an Epic or a User Story
• Feature are the column corresponding to the macro process step of your journey
• Epic and User Story are the post-it
mandatory optional
optional
mandatory
optional
EPIC: “As a Premium Customer, I can take advantage of my loyalty points so that our company retain me”
Search hotel Select hotel Pay Prepare journey
As a customer, I
Simple search a hotel
with simple criteria
R1
R2
R3
R4
As a customer, I
select a hotel from a
result list
As a customer, I
pay by Visa
Release
As a customer, I
search a hotel with
picture
As a customer, I filter
my results on criteria
As a customer, I print
my voucher
As a customer, I
compare up to 5
hotels among the
results
As a customer, I
pay by PayPal
As a customer, I
pay by loyalty
point
As a customer, I
use mobile App
As a customer, I
use mobile App
As a customer, I
have access to other
service as car renting
User Story
Or
Epic
Macro process based on Features
Features: take advantage of my loyalty points, search hotel, select hotel, pay, prepare journey, …
Key points: to estimate an IT project cost, you need to have a global overview of what will do your application i.e.
• The list of the main features
• The list of the main constraints impacting the IT architecture (e.g. really big volumes to store, high performance like real time, …)