part one · epic naming & kickoff
Epic Naming & Kickoff
Coherent activities, named after what the person does.
An Epic is a coherent activity that the named person performs. Not a feature. Not a release. An activity. The corpus's discipline is to name Epics after the activity, not after the system that supports it.
The naming pattern
| Bad Epic name | Good Epic name | Why the second is better |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication overhaul | Sign in to start the day | Activity-shaped — the person does this once, then the day begins |
| Hebrew name support | Grading without re-typing names | Names the activity-side outcome, not the implementation |
| Billing v3 | Pay once, see what was bought | Names the moment from the person's vantage |
| Dashboard refresh | Open the morning, know what's owed | Activity-shaped, names the moment |
The system-shaped name leads to system-shaped stories. The activity-shaped name leads to story sequences that map directly to the journey. The journey, the Epic, and the stories converge on the same vocabulary.
What an Epic contains
An Epic is bigger than a story and smaller than a feature. It contains:
- A name in the activity-shaped form.
- A one-line description that names what the person does.
- Journey coverage — which J-numbered steps this Epic addresses.
- A done-means — the testable condition under which the Epic is finished.
- A backbones list — the 5–8 candidate stories the Epic likely contains.
- A recommended start — which story the trio recommends pulling first.
- Dependencies — what other Epics or external work this depends on.
- Open questions — what must be resolved before stories can be refined.
The Epic kickoff
The Epic kickoff is a 60-minute trio session — PO, Tech Lead, QA, plus the Designer when relevant. The output is the artifact above. The session has three movements.
- Read the brief together. Twenty minutes. The brief is on screen. Each section is read aloud. Questions surface. The Tech Lead notes anything that suggests a TDB is missing or stale.
- Walk the journey. Twenty minutes. Each journey step in scope is named. The Epic emerges as the coherent slice through those steps.
- Backbone candidate stories. Twenty minutes. Each backbone is a one-liner — as [person], I want [moment-action], so that [outcome]. Not refined. Sized roughly. The trio agrees on the recommended start.
The kickoff produces an artifact, not a meeting note. The artifact is what the next session — story writing and amigos — refers to.
Epic vs Feature
A common confusion. The corpus pattern:
- A Feature Brief in Volume II usually contains one or more Epics in Volume III.
- An Epic contains stories that, when shipped, complete the activity-shaped outcome.
- A story is a single moment within the Epic.
For small features, the Epic and the Feature Brief look similar. For large features, the Feature Brief contains 2–3 Epics, each with its own journey coverage and done-means.
When an Epic is not yet ready
The kickoff sometimes reveals that the Epic is not yet ready to be sliced into stories. Common reasons:
- A discovery question is still not witnessed. Story-writing on it would produce stories built on assumption.
- A dependency is undated. The Epic's done-means depends on a third-party integration whose contract is not signed.
- An ADR is missing. A technical choice the Epic hinges on is not yet recorded.
Each of these is named, owned, and dated. The Epic returns to the kickoff agenda when the blockers clear. Trying to write stories on an Epic that is not ready produces stories that need to be rewritten — the most common source of mid-sprint scope churn.