“Bus factor” – what does it mean for small businesses?

Have you ever heard about the notion of the “bus factor”? In case it makes you a bit confused now, let us clear something up right away – it has nothing to do with buses, actually. Yet accidents similar to those on roads happen to businesses, too. Can you prepare your organization for everything and make sure it’s bus factor proof? We will cover everything step by step in this article and figure out what this concept means and how it affects small businesses. 

What we mean by “bus factor”

Simply put, the “bus factor” is a measurement of the risk associated with a key person’s absence or departure from a project or organization. It refers to the number of people who would need to be hit by a bus (i.e., leave the project or organization) before the project or organization would be in trouble.

For example, if a project has a bus factor of 1, it means that there is only one person who possesses a critical skill or knowledge required for the project’s entire success. If that person were to leave the project or organization, the project could be in serious jeopardy. However, if a project has a bus factor of 10, it means that there are 10 people who possess the skills or knowledge essential for the project to be successful. If one or two of them were to leave, the project could still proceed without significant issues.

By identifying the bus factor, organizations can assess their risk and take steps to reduce it by cross-training employees, documenting processes and procedures, and sharing knowledge among team members.

Does it really matter?

We wouldn’t lie in saying that calculating the bus factor is highly important regardless of your company’s size, industry, specialty, and so on. By the way, when it comes to software development teams, neglecting the bus factor poses a considerable risk. 

Low bus factor can lead to serious trouble, if not a real disaster as all operations can completely fail in the blink of an eye. 

As already mentioned, the bus factor plays a crucial role in business models centered around their development teams. Startups are especially vulnerable to low bus factor. Just think of it – their entire success literally depends on one person. If that person leaves the project as the company grows, the team will have to start over again. Filling the gap with a specialist possessing the same level of expertise may be quite a challenge. 

By identifying the bus factor, organizations can take steps to mitigate their risk. For example, they can cross-train employees, document processes and procedures, and share knowledge among team members to reduce their reliance on individual key personnel. By doing so, organizations can ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to continue operating even if one or more key individuals are absent or leave the organization. In this way, the bus factor helps organizations build resilience and maintain continuity in the face of unexpected events. A high bus factor means you will be able to continue working without a pressing dependence on specific people. 

According to the source, several studies conducted in 2015 and 2016 calculated the bus factor of 133 popular GitHub projects. It turned out that most of the projects had a small bus factor (65% have a bus factor ≤ 2) and that less than 10% of those projects had a bus factor greater than 10. 

Having analyzed the bus factor rate by software type, the following results were obtained:

Machine learning has the most projects with a high bus factor. ML is followed by Backend projects, Frontend projects, and Business intelligence projects respectively. 

Ways to improve your project’s bus factor

You’ve calculated your organization’s bus factor and found out it’s catastrophically low. What are your further actions? It’s never too late to change, improve, and upgrade something. In order for your project to run smoothly, efforts should be put to increase the bus factor. Yes, you can cut down risk by boosting the bus factor and increasing your team members’ capabilities. We’ve outlined some most effective techniques you can adopt to achieve a higher bus factor. Explore them now!

1. Cross-training for your team

Having in your team highly-qualified experts in a particular area is great but exchanging knowledge and encouraging group problem-solving prevents critical issues once someone’s missing. Encourage team members to learn about each other’s roles and responsibilities so that they can step in and provide support if necessary. This also helps to build a more cohesive team and fosters teamwork and promotes a sense of shared responsibility. Sharing ideas, designs, discoveries, problems, etc with team members also increases team spirit, boosts creativity, improves knowledge dispersion, and improves the bus factor since more people will be aware of what others are doing or have already done.

There are numerous techniques to adopt in terms of cross-training. Pair programming is one of them. It is mostly applicable to many IT and software development. In simple terms, it means two people working together on a task, e.g. coding. Such pair work results in more creative solutions and shared understanding and expertise. Rotating roles within a project is also widely applied. 

2. Pay attention to documentation

We know it may sound daunting but there are some boring things that are anyway must be done – and done properly. 

Critical knowledge is to be documented and shared among the team. This can include things like standard operating procedures, knowledge bases, project documentation, etc. Make sure that the documentation is up-to-date and easily accessible to all team members.

Don’t underestimate documentation as it may be your “life preserver” in case of losing an important team member. If key processes are well documented, then even someone with limited knowledge of the subject will be able to cover them. It goes without saying that unless a specialist has the required expertise it would be slow, but at least they’ll know what to do and how.

3. Provide automation

If possible, of course. Try to automate as many of your key processes as possible. We do not want to say that once tasks are automated no human intervention is needed. It is adopted and controlled by human professionals, but with considerable automation, you won’t rely on people that much.

4. Prioritize simplicity 

You can cope with a low bus factor through simplicity. Yes, you’ve got it right. Talking about code, the more difficult and specific it is, the longer it takes for a new team member to catch up and set up the working process. Of course, it cannot be super easy all the time but if you have a choice, consider simplicity. It may be a win-win decision.

5. Pick backups

It’s a very good practice to define backups for every team member. Why? Backups are those who will be able to take over critical functions and tasks for their counterpart in case of emergency. They should be ready to proceed with the tasks for a few days or even months. 

6. Take time for daily standups

This one sounds interesting and entertaining enough. In fact, it is so to a certain extent. Regular meetings are for sharing knowledge, insights, and experience, offering effective solutions, and brainstorming. 

Do not neglect to conduct standups. Make sure these meetings are productive and meaningful so everyone is free to ask questions or start a discussion. Remember that constant communication is a component of overall success.

7. Be an investor

We mean investing in your team’s growth always makes sense. Training sessions, workshops, conferences, and many more cool ways to strengthen your team’s skills. Let the more experienced members be mentors for the rest teaching them essential information. Support your team members to grow into management and leadership roles as well as to grow their careers. Professional development matters – it’s your powerful weapon against the low bus factor. 

Final thoughts

It’s been said a lot but we can summarize everything in a short and simple statement: “the higher the bus factor, the better”.

The very first thing you have to do is to calculate your project’s bus factor. After all, knowing the potential risks helps to prevent critical problems. Relying on 1-2 key people is playing with fire so you better push experience and knowledge exchange, take care of the most relevant documentation, involve automation and simplify operations as possible, make safe plans, and invest in your team. Moreover, these measures also lead to better productivity as you will end up saving money and time and providing customers with services of higher quality. Boost your business efficiency by planning for the bus factor and ensuring better awareness of business process management and standard operating procedures.