How the Epic Owner is Obligated to Add Value

An Epic Owner creates an Epic which possesses economic and business value . Once the epic is approved from the Lean Portfolio Management, the epic owner works directly with the Agile Release Train and Solution Train. The approval or rejection of the epic is conveyed to the epic owner. Being an epic owner is not a job title, rather a responsibility.

An epic owner works on one or two epics at a time.

For creating an epic, effective collaboration between several disciplines is critical. This collaboration helps in defining the epic into features and the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It is then created into a business case in the Portfolio Kanban.

The following describes the collaboration needed among members:

• Product Management assists the epic owner in splitting the epic into features which are then prioritized.
• The Release Train Engineer provides guidance for planning and execution in the Agile Release Train.
• The Agile Team coordinates with the epic owner to perform research activities that provide an insight into the facts supporting the epic.
• An epic owner works with the business stakeholders for understanding the value, worth and the business benefit of the epic.
• The development team guides the epic owner in comprehending the priority of the task using weighted shortest job first.

Once the epic is created, the epic owner presents it to the Lean Portfolio Management. An epic has to follow the merits set by Lean Portfolio Management to get approval. The epic is analyzed and the business priorities of the epic are extracted. When an epic is approved, the Product and Solution Management split the epic and prioritize its features into their respective backlogs.

The epic can be significantly utilized in the following perspectives:

• The Epic facilitates PI planning in extracting the objectives that need to be achieved in the Program Increment.
• It is a part of the System Demo During inspect and adapt sessions the features of the product are demonstrated which is the result of the work done in the iteration.
• The epic becomes part of the Solution Demo At the end of an iteration, the product is shown to the customers where they provide their feedback.
• The epic helps in coordinating with sales or marketing activities.
• The epic is useful in reporting the progress to the stakeholders.