Stories, Epics, and Tasks: Organizing Agile Requirements. Some teams only work with stories, but it can be difficult for a team new to agile to write stories that are easy to understand and provide value every time. An alternative is to add epics and tasks. An epic is some big piece of functionality the business wants that is delivered via multiple smaller stories. Epics, by definition, break the rule that stories must be small, but they have the most business benefit. Tasks are smaller work items that build a story.