What is the difference between stories, epics, and tasks ?

Item	Definition	Purpose	Example
Epic	A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller stories.	Groups related features or goals at a high level.	"Build a user account system"
Story (User Story)	A feature or requirement told from the user’s perspective.	Represents one functional piece of an Epic.	"As a user, I want to reset my password so I can regain access"
Task	A detailed, actionable piece of work needed to complete a story.	Used to track development steps or subtasks.	"Design reset password page", "Implement backend API"

🔍 More Details

🟣 Epic

• High-level feature or initiative

• Too big to complete in a single sprint

• Often spans multiple sprints

• Broken down into multiple user stories

🟢 User Story

• Focused on user value

• Written in this format:
  👉 “As a [user], I want [goal] so that [benefit]”

• Helps teams understand why something is needed

• Estimated using story points

🔵 Task

• Often used for planning or technical implementation

• Can be assigned to individuals

• Helps track progress within a story

• May include testing, documentation, UI design, etc.

• 
  

🟣 EPIC Template & Example

✅ Epic Template

Title: [Brief Name of the Epic]
Description: [What this large feature or initiative is about and why it matters]
Business Value: [How it supports user needs or business goals]
Acceptance Criteria (optional): [What success looks like for the whole epic]
Related Stories: [Break this epic down into user stories]

🧾 Epic Example

Title: User Account Management
Description: As part of our app launch, we need to allow users to create, manage, and recover their accounts.
Business Value: This allows user personalization, data persistence, and secure access—core to our product.
Acceptance Criteria:

·         Users can sign up, log in, log out

·         Users can reset passwords

·         Admins can deactivate accounts
Related Stories:

·         Sign up and sign in functionality

·         Password reset

·         Edit user profile

·         Email verification

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🟢 USER STORY Template & Example

✅ User Story Template

As a [type of user]
I want to [do something]
So that [benefit/value I get]

Acceptance Criteria:

·         [List of conditions that define when the story is complete]

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🧾 User Story Example

As a registered user
I want to reset my password
So that I can regain access to my account if I forget my login credentials

Acceptance Criteria:

·         User sees a “Forgot password?” link on the login page

·         A password reset email is sent when the user submits their email

·         User can set a new password using a secure token link

·         The link expires after 15 minutes