Skip to main content

Feature teams / Component teams and co-location

Last post 09:04 am January 28, 2019 by Sander Dur
2 replies
03:52 pm January 26, 2019

Hello everyone

I am trying to get my head around feature teams vs component teams and thought this would be the best place to check my knowledge.

Component team - a group of people whose core competency is the same (e.g. QA, UI development, SysAdmin, Architects). Although their competencies are the same, they still rely other Component teams to create a workable product.

Feature team - a group of people with different competency but whom, together, can create a workable product without the aid of other teams. So, a feature team could be composed of 1 x UI Developer, 1 x backend developer, 1 x SysAdmin, 1 x Architect, 1 x QA tester.

Is that correct?

And how does this fit in with colocation. Should both be colocated? That is, should a feature team be co-located in one building, and if we wanted a component team, they should be co-located in one building too?


07:05 pm January 26, 2019

You could think of a feature team as one in which any integration dependencies for releasing useful work every Sprint lie under the control of the team. A component team can mean many things, but that principle will in some way be compromised.

If co-location would improve the collaborative potential of any team, then a case can be made for it. Dislocating a team is generally not without consequences.


09:04 am January 28, 2019

I usually use a hamburger as an example to illustratie feature vs component.

Components of a hamburger are (but not limited to): 



- Top bun

- Sauce

- Tomato

- Patty

- Lettuce

- Sauce

- Bottom bun



But when I go into the MacDonalds, and order my burger, I don't want each of those delivered seperatly.

I want a complete feature, a bite of the complete burger every time I put my teeth down.



Co- or dislocation depends on the team and the situation, I guess. Communication wise etc. it's usually more efficient to be colocated.


By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.