Battle of Aljubarrota

On August 14, 1385, a small and poorly equipped Portuguese force wan the battle for independence over a 5 to 6 times in number Castile army of knights. On this battle, King John I of Portugal, D. Nuno Álvares Pereira and those 6000 extraordinary men wan also the battle of the new social order over the old medieval aristocracy.

This battle presents us some valuable lessons we can always use when building software - or just about anywhere:

• fight for what we believe;
• be humble (the Portuguese knight fought on foot);
• be prepared and informed, anticipate the future (obviously the Castillian didn't think a lot about Crecy or Poitiers);
• what isn't your core, outsource (the Portuguese didn't had archers, so they've outsourced them from England);
  
• don't ever underestimate your adversary;
• smaller groups can have an agility advantage;