I look at this a bit differently. An ideal team would be comprised of individuals who possess all three skill sets, but with different specializations. Having

I look at this a bit differently. An ideal team would be comprised of individuals who possess all three skill sets, but with different specializations. Having a pure "hacker" and a pure "engineer" in the same group is setting things up for conflict. Along the same lines, having an "engineer" and a "developer" can lead the "engineer" towards being an Ivory Tower Architect. In a team that I'm a part of, I want to split the work around a bit. Sometimes people get to do prototypes, sometimes you have to sit back and write a spec or draw up an architecture diagram, and other times you have you have to do the boring coding work. I'm not sure about others, but I strive to be able to do all three roles when the project at hand demands it.