Have you heard before about bus factor? What is the bus factor? A concept, an idea or a key metric? Bus factor, also known as truck factor, is a risk measurement technique which highlights how many people could get hit by a bus or a truck (figuratively speaking), before your entire project or company falls apart or goes bankrupt.
By the way, how many people are indispensable for your company? One, two, three? If they all disappear at once, what will you do?
As a business owner or a manager or a team leader, you want to have very talented people on your team, but you don’t realize if one person leaves (that rock star member), everything is falling apart. Or do you realize?
Let’s take a look at best and worst scenarios about bus factor.
Best & Worst Bus Factor Scenarios
Practically, bus factor is a number. What kind of number? A number of indispensable people from your team or your organization.
The worst bus factor number is one. Why? Think about it… If you have a team of 10 people, but only one carry the team on his back, that person is irreplaceable, right?
What will happen if that person disappears or goes to the competition or goes on vacation or gets sick? You don’t have these scenarios in mind, do you?
The best bus factor scenarios if you have a team of 10 is to have all of them able to cover each other and switch between task without causing project delays or chaos. This scenario is ideal and definitely impossible. In a team of 10, always few of them will be the best, then some at the middle line, and other will be juniors.
However, if you lead a team, be aware to have at least two people who know everything about the project and of course, make sure you have some backup plans to breathe when all your rock stars disappear overnight.
And this is how the next question arises: How organizations can protect themselves from the bus factor?
How Organizations Can Protect Themselves From The Bus Factor?
There are some actions that any organization should take in order to protect themselves from the bus factor. What are these? I’ll list them:
- Standardized tools & practices
- Documentation
- Cross-training
- Role rotation
Standardized tools & practices, plus a well done documentation are about organization. Without organization in organization (word game), the bus factor will be scary.
I know it’s hard to document everything all the time, but documentation should be a pillar for your daily work. It’s better to prevent than to heal, right? Why not dedicate an hour a day documenting your daily work? It will be harder to document your project after the rock star will leave your team. Harder than ever…
Cross-training is a good practice in a healthy organization. Train multiple people to handle the same responsibilities. Some team leaders or entrepreneurs are reluctant to invest in their team members. That’s how is born a bad or polluted culture.
An unhealthy organizational culture leads to long-term problems.
I’m convinced you heard before this cite of Richard Branson: “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to”.
If you invest in people, in some point of life, they will return the favor, even if some of them won’t or will disappoint you. Favor can come from where you least expect it.
Role rotation is an excellent idea that every team should adopt. It’s hard? Maybe harder than we think in some scenarios, but very healthy, especially if your team has a long-term project or have a SaaS (Software as a Service) product.
What you will do different for your team if you realize that your bus factor is one or two? What actions will you take today to reduce the risk of failing or bankruptcy?
Are you aware of the bus factor danger? How about your teammates?
Reducing the risk associated with a low bus factor is not about replacing people – it’s about protecting knowledge, continuity, and long-term organizational resilience.
Learn & Grow
The bus factor risk measurement is not about danger, but about how to prevent that possible danger.
If you are the owner, you may think that you should be that one-man show, who do everything for everybody because you are the boss. Allow me to ask you: how is your health? How longer can you resist as a one-man show? Delegation is a great skill, not a weakness!
A bus factor of 1 is the most dangerous state! Bus factor is a leadership problem, not a people problem.
Even if it seems unpleasant, great teams are built on replaceability, not heroism. The best-managed teams are the ones where no individual is indispensable. That makes a team a team in the true sense of the word.
Ask yourself these two questions:
- Who is the smartest person on the team?
- What happens if this person is unavailable tomorrow?
Now you should understand the proverb “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”.
“Good is good when it’s well done.”
✍ Horja Robert Emanuel
Digital Transformation Architect