Epic creation

Question

How do I create a new epic for my project in ADO that I can link to features and user stories going forwards

Answer 1

Hello Ito,

Thank you for reaching out on the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Creating Epics in Azure DevOps (ADO) is a fundamental way to manage higher-level initiatives and seamlessly roll up your Features and User Stories.

Before creating an Epic, you must ensure that the Epic backlog level is enabled for your team. As noted in the official Microsoft documentation:

"Epics and features are higher-level work items. You use them to organize your backlog into more manageable pieces... To view Epics or Features, you might need to enable them for your team."

Here is the general flow to get this set up:

1. Enable the Epics Backlog: Navigate to Boards > Backlogs, click the Settings (gear icon) in the upper right, select Backlogs, and check the box for Epics.
2. Create the Epic: Switch your backlog view from Stories/Features to Epics and click New Work Item to create your Epic.
3. Establish Links: You can add child Features simply by clicking the + (Add) icon next to the Epic directly from the Backlog or Board view. Under those Features, you can repeat the process to create child User Stories.

For more comprehensive guidance, please refer to the official documentation: Define features and epics to organize your backlog.

If you have any further questions or need additional assistance getting your hierarchy configured, please feel free to ask in comments.

Please accept as Yes if the answer is helpful so that it can help others in the community.

Note: This response is drafted with the help of AI systems.

Answer 2

In Azure DevOps, epics are just work items at the Epic backlog level that can have child features (and those features can have child stories/backlog items). To create a new epic and then link it to features and user stories:

1. Open the Epics backlog for the team
   • Go to Boards → Backlogs.
   • Use the backlog selector to switch to the Epics backlog level if it is not already selected. Each process defines Epics as a top-level backlog (for Agile, Scrum, CMMI, and Basic where applicable).
2. Create the epic work item
   • In the Epics backlog, select the blue New Work Item button.
   • Enter the epic title.
   • Press Enter or choose Add to top to save it.
   • Double‑click the epic (or select it and press Enter) to open it and add details such as description, Value Area, Effort/Story Points/Size, Business Value, Time Criticality, and Target Date as needed.
3. Add child features under the epic
   • From the Epic board (Boards → Boards, then choose the Epics board) or from the Epics backlog, use the Add icon on the epic to add child items.
   • When adding a child from an epic, the work item type follows the defined hierarchy, so the child will be a Feature.
   • Enter titles for the features; press Enter after each to quickly add multiple features.
4. Add child stories/backlog items under each feature
   • Open the Features backlog or the Features board.
   • Use the Add icon on a feature to add child items.
   • Depending on the process, these will be User Stories (Agile), Product Backlog Items (Scrum), or Requirements (CMMI).
   • Continue typing titles and pressing Enter to add multiple child items.
5. Organize or reparent existing items (optional)
   • If features or stories already exist, use the backlog or board to parent/reparent them under the new epic or its features (for example, via drag‑and‑drop in the backlog hierarchy) so that the hierarchy becomes: Epic → Feature → Story/Backlog Item/Requirement → Task.

Once this hierarchy is in place, rollup views on product and portfolio backlogs can show progress bars, counts, or totals of descendant items for each epic and feature.

---

References:

• Define features and epics to organize your backlog
• Add board features and epics
• Create and manage your backlog