This document outlines the process of breaking down large projects into smaller tasks from high-level epics to user stories. It describes a top-down approach where leadership first defines a vision and business epics, which are then broken down into program epics and features. Product owners further break these down into individual user stories for development teams to work on. The goal is to take large problems and decompose them into discrete pieces that can be easily estimated and implemented.

1. Epics
Online File
Processing
Compliance
Tracking
Staff
Assignments
Complaint
Management
Environmental
Data
Collections
Features R1
Online File
Processing
Compliance
Tracking
Staff
Assignments
Complaint
Management
Environmental
Data
Collections
R2 R3 R4
Release Management
Portfolio Management
(Business Epics)
Program Management
(Program Epics)
Product Management
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story Composition – Breaking Down the Problem
Vision and Direction
DEP Portal
Analyze
Analyze
Analyze
Analyze
Analyze
Epics
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Development Teams (Scrums)
Ext User Portal
Mobile
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
Feature
A B C D E
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
As a
<type of user>
I want to
<have some feature or capability>
So that
<the following value is delivered>
I will know this is done when…
1. Condition is met
2. Condition is met
3. Condition is met
As a
Boat Permit Processing Clerk
I want to
Search for expired permits by number
So that
I can check for unlicensed boats
I will know this is done when…
1. Get a match based on a partial search
2. Get a match based on an exact search
3. See other craft registered to this owner
Acceptance Criteria Acceptance Criteria
User Story User Story
Direction of Workflow
A
Highest levels of leadership define their vision, and direction for the program/project, and
this is distilled down into Business Epics (big stories that explain what they are trying to
achieve, or would like to see delivered)
B
These Epics are then further broken down into Program Epics, taking a Business Vision and
distilling those into Features, or Functional Areas that make sense to a technical program or
project, although they are still fairly high level scope.
C
Release Management then break down these Program Epics into a release roadmap and
versions that make sense and that support the vision and direction.
D
Product Owners (probably the most challenging role) then distill those Program Epics into
Features and turn them into Stories that can be tackled by development teams. Use the
INVEST acronym to test if your stories are good enough.
Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable.
E
Stories are then added to the Product Backlogs of Scrum teams who will be responsible for
development and testing of each story.
Prepared by: Nigel Thurlow
Last Updated: 9th
April 2015
Version: 1