A chief programmer team was the concept of a programming team organized in a star around a "chief" role, granted to the software engineer who understood the system's intentions the best.
[1] The concept was similar to that of a surgical team in which a surgeon who performs the operation is supported by medical staff such as an anaesthetist and nurses.
[1] Fred Brooks describes the concept in detail in The Mythical Man-Month,[2] as proposed by Harlan Mills[3] in 1971.
Various roles have been defined for team members, the following are taken from Brooks.
The remaining team members provide "all conceivable support."