Feature teams and component teams make up the basic structure where Scrum functions best. Both have their unique traits, and understanding them is an essential part of the Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO) course.
Let’s look at their advantages and disadvantages:
Feature Teams:
Feature teams are cross-functional, having competencies to pull end-user items (often called user stories) from product backlog and turn them into a functional demonstrable increment in a single iteration (Sprint). They are the most common in the context of the Scrum Framework.
Benefits of Feature Teams
- Holistic Understanding: A feature team cooperatively performs all necessary tasks including requirement specification, design, implementation, integration, and testing. This approach enables them to have a profound understanding of the overall system and creates greater flexibility in task handling.
- Direct Customer Value: As they work on user stories dedicated to creating a feature that will directly interact with the end-user, they offer direct customer value. By focusing on ‘done’ features, they provide deliverables that have immediate business value.
- Speeds Up Delivery: Feature teams avoid the inevitable “hand-offs” and thus minimize “waiting time” involved between specialized teams. It accelerates the delivery process and reduces the cost related to these hand-offs.
Drawbacks of Feature Teams
- Challenging Coordination: When more than one feature team works on a single product, it could lead to challenging coordination. Shared code ownership may lead to code redundancy or struggles related to code quality.
- Broader Skill Requirement: Feature teams have to be cross-functional, which means individuals often need a broader set of skills. Training or acquiring such resources could involve more time and cost.
- Higher Initial Setup Time: Setting up feature teams for large systems might be complex and require more resources and time initially.
Component Teams
Component teams focus on specific subsystems or components (like UI layer, database layer, etc.). They handle all the tasks, stories, or backlog items related to their specific subsystem.
Benefits of Component Teams
- Deep Knowledge: Teams focusing on specific components tend to develop in-depth knowledge about their area of work, which in turn results in clean architecture and competent error handling in the respective component.
- Copes With Complex Subsystems: In a scenario where there are considerably complex subsystems within the product, component teams stand out as a practical choice.
- Can Scale Up: Component teams can scale up to large products easier than feature teams, especially when teams are geographically distributed.
Drawbacks of Component Teams
- Dependency Issues: They tend to create dependencies on other teams. The completion of a full feature that provides user value could be delayed due to these dependencies.
- Need for Complex Integration: Complex subsystem integration can become a significant overhead over time.
- Constrains Flow of Value: As component teams work on individual subsystems, the value flow to the end-user often happens at the end of the product development or extremely late in the cycle.
The selection between feature teams and component teams largely depends on the product’s nature and its subsystem complexity. A-CSPO’s role is to manage relevant stakeholders’ expectations and align teams with the best opportunities to deliver value in the context.
Practice Test
True or False: Incorporating feature teams in Scrum enhances customer-centric production.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Feature teams focus directly on delivering customer-facing value, as they work across different components to deliver a complete feature.
Which of the following is an advantage of having a feature team?
- a) Encourage silo mentality
- b) Increase in cross-functional learning
- c) Dependence on multiple teams
- d) Less responsiveness to change
Answer: b) Increase in cross-functional learning
Explanation: Feature teams work on different components which promote cross-functional learning and knowledge transfer amongst team members.
Component teams are structured based on the architectural layer they take care of. True or false?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Component teams focus on a specific component or layer of the product’s architecture, maintaining expertise in a specific area.
Which is a primary drawback of using component teams in Scrum?
- a) Lack of cross-functional learning
- b) Inefficiency in resource utilization
- c) Both A and B
- d) None of the above
Answer: c) Both A and B
Explanation: Component teams restrict the learning scope to their assigned component and can sometimes cause resource under-utilization if their component isn’t involved in the current work.
Feature teams are best suited when the product’s architecture is component based. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Feature teams are best suited in situations where the product comprises of end-to-end features. They could struggle in an environment where the product’s architecture is heavily component-based.
With feature teams, there is a lower chance for delay due to hand-off communication. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Since feature teams operate across various components, they minimize dependencies and thus reduce potential delays due to hand-off communication.
Which of the following is not a benefit of using component teams?
- a) Deeper expertise in specific area
- b) Elimination of hand-off delays
- c) Clarity and simplicity of responsibilities
- d) Maintaining high-quality codebase
Answer: b) Elimination of hand-off delays
Explanation: Component teams do not eliminate hand-off delays, they can in fact increase them due to inter-team dependencies.
True or False: Component teams can improve the overall quality of the specific area of code they maintain.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Component teams offer the benefit of maintaining high quality for the specific component they repeatedly work on.
Component teams enhance responsiveness to changes in the product backlog. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Component teams are not as adept at responding to changes as feature teams, given they specialize in specific components and may need additional time to adapt.
Feature teams generate less technical debt compared to component teams. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Feature teams, due to their cross-component work, can see the “big picture” better and thus can avoid creating actions that produce technical debt.
Interview Questions
What is a primary benefit of a feature team in a Scrum setting?
A primary benefit of a feature team is that they have multidisciplinary skills and are capable of working across various components of a product, allowing them to deliver features end-to-end.
What is a notable drawback of feature teams?
One drawback of feature teams is that they can often lead to duplicated efforts, as multiple teams may end up working on similar features without realizing it.
How does the structure of component teams assist in product development?
Component teams are specialized in different areas of the product, which can ensure high-quality development in their respective areas. This specialization can increase efficiency and expertise within each component of the product.
How can component teams become a hurdle in Scrum implementation?
Since component teams tend to work in isolation on different parts of a product rather than end-to-end features, it can lead to poor integration of components and delays in final product consolidation, which can hinder the Scrum value of “working software.”
What benefits can be derived from using both feature teams and component teams in a Scrum environment?
Leveraging both team types can provide a balance of specialization and flexibility. Component teams provide specialized skills for complex areas of the product, while feature teams offer the ability to deliver end-to-end features, enhancing customer value.
What are the potential drawbacks of using both feature teams and component teams?
A potential drawback of using both team types includes difficulties in coordination and communication. While managing interdependencies, redundant work can occur, and integration issues might arise leading to delays in shown progress.
How do feature teams promote customer-centric development?
As feature teams work on end-to-end customer-centric features, they better understand the user experience and can more directly aim to satisfy customer needs and wants.
What might be a disadvantage of feature teams when it comes to developing complex products?
Feature teams might lack deep technical expertise in specific components of complex products, which could potentially impact the quality of the product.
How can a component team deliver value in a Scrum environment?
Component teams may enhance the quality of specific components due to their specialized knowledge, and contribute to the product’s overall stability and reliability.
Why might scrum teams face challenges when incorporating component teams into their structure?
As component teams focus on specialized areas rather than on end-to-end features, this can lead to dependencies between teams, leading to coordination overhead and potentially delaying product increment delivery.
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