What is an epic?

By Darko Bačić, founder of App Tube · 9 October 2026

An epic is a big piece of work split into smaller tasks. It is too big to do in one go, so you break it into parts. The epic stays open until the last part is done.

The word comes from big project trackers, but small teams use it too. This post shows what goes in an epic and how big it should be. It is one of the plain explainers on our blog.

An example

Luka, Mira and Ivan run a three-person studio. They are building a shopping app for a client. The client wants a new checkout page. That is weeks of work, so it does not fit in one task.

They make an epic called "New checkout page". Under it they add five tasks:

• Design the checkout screen
• Build the cart summary
• Add Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Show a clear error when a card fails
• Test on old phones

Mira takes the design. Luka and Ivan split the rest. Each task is a card that moves across the board on its own.

One task, "Add Apple Pay and Google Pay", is still big. So Ivan splits it into two subtasks. A subtask is a small task inside a task. Subtasks or checklists explains when to split a task that way.

When the last card reaches Done, they close the epic. Anyone can open it and see what is done and what is left.

How big it should be

An epic should be bigger than a week of work and smaller than three months. A few rules of thumb help:

• It takes more than a week. Anything smaller is a task.
• It has an end. "New checkout page" ends. "Improve the app" never does.
• It holds about three to fifteen tasks. Past that, split it in two.
• You can say what done means in one sentence.

If an epic is still open after three months, it has turned into a bucket. Close it, and start a smaller one with what is left.

You may also hear the word story. Epic vs story vs task sorts out all three.

Common mistakes

• Using an epic as a bucket. "Bugs" or "Polish" never ends, so it is not an epic. Use tags (labels) for that kind of group.
• Making an epic for every task. If an epic holds one task, it only adds a click.
• Planning every task on day one. You will find new tasks as you build. Add them when you find them.
• Tracking time on the epic. The work happens in the tasks, so the time belongs there.
• Mixing up an epic and a release. A release is a batch of work that ships together, like version 1.4.0. An epic is a goal. Tasks from one epic can ship in two releases. What a release is covers the rest.

How devBoard handles it

devBoard has three levels of work: epic, task and subtask. An epic holds tasks, and a task can hold subtasks. A task does not need an epic, and in a small team most tasks have none. Epics have no timer, so time goes on the tasks and subtasks under them. A saved view can filter by level to show only epics. There are no stories and no custom fields. Epics, tasks and subtasks shows how it looks in the app, and the setup guide walks you through your first epic.