Software Development Teams Are Alloys

One thing that surprises me is that over time, development teams have fewer developers and more other roles.

Just a week ago, the last episode of The Lord of the Rings: Rings Of Power premiered, and the concept of alloy, almost forgotten in my mind, came back into the limelight.

The first alloys were created to combine several elements, at least one metal, and get as a result a new material with increased strengths. One example is steel, which is basically iron and carbon, and it improves the strength and fracture resistance of iron.

We also have composite materials. Technically are not alloys, but once again, the combination of different elements create as a result a new material with increased strengths. One example is reinforced concrete: concrete and steel bars. The concrete supports very well the compression, but not the tension; the steel supports tension but not the compression; so both together supports better compression and tension. ⁽¹⁾

If we can combine metals to get increased strengths, and if we can combine materials to increase their strengths, why not also combine people to increase their strengths?

But, what caught my attention, was a part of one dialogue of the last episode of The Lord of…