How to use epics, features and pbis
In visual studio online you can already enable Epics, Features, and PBIS
Epics have features and features have PBIs. We know that in SCRUM PBIs should be completed in a Sprint.
If we have a small project, 2 months, where we decided that Sprints would be 1 week long, then I think it could happen that PBIs and features fit into one sprint, but maybe Epics wont.
Example: In an inventory system:
One Epic could be Manage Inventory, but the epic could have 2 features: 1. Manage Products 2. Manage Orders
And the features could have PBIS: 1.1 Add Product 1.2 Delete Product 1.3 Update Product
2.1 Add Order 2.2 Edit order 2.3 Delete Order
If, for example I have an estimated velocity of 80 per Sprint. And I start estimating effort in all PBIs, lets say at the end of the estimation, if I sum app all efforts of PBIs in feature 1 would give 50, and in the feature 2 would give 60.
Because Feature 1 and Feature 2 are from Epic1. It means I could develop one of the features, but not the entire Epic on the same Sprint.
What would you do in this case? How would you manage this?
Yes, Epic can span several Sprints.
And you can define Features and PBIs with the Area/Iteration path which is similar to the image below (image is from this msdn article).
Also have a check of this link for further information on how to use TFS to support epics, release trains, and multiple backlogs: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn798712(v=vs.120).aspx
