A third approach (not endorsing it, merely adding it here for the sake of completeness) is to have a software architecture role which defines how the components

A third approach (not endorsing it, merely adding it here for the sake of completeness) is to have a software architecture role which defines how the components interact. Each time is free to do whatever they want within their component, but they have to meet their interface spec. When the components are put together, there'll be small problems/bugs for sure, but if they've followed the architecture (and the architecture team/person has been making sure of that) then they should basically fit together.