Why do you need a high bus factor?
The bus factor represents a real risk to your organization. While it’s unlikely you’ll have several staff members literally “run over by a bus,” staff departures happen regularly and for many reasons. Employees may become ill, take a vacation at an inopportune moment or leave the company for personal or professional reasons.
How a low bus factor can happen
A project may have a low bus factor if just one or two people fully understand the technical specifications or codebase. In software engineering projects with a significant amount of technical debt, it’s common that only the original developers understand certain areas of the codebase. As new staff members build on these parts of the project, the code can become so complex and difficult to read that only a few people have the knowledge to maintain it effectively. Should those staff members leave the organization, there could be entire modules of code that nobody dares touch for fear of introducing unexpected bugs.
As an organization grows, it’s common for different departments to start to deviate from the “official” way of doing something. Perhaps a senior member of the sales team struggles with the CRM platform, so they start using their own unofficial database, or the engineering team starts using untested third-party tools. This kind of “shadow IT” can have unforeseen consequences in terms of security and data protection, and it can create bus factor risks because these undocumented, unsupported systems are known by only a handful of people within the department.
Good employers strive to reduce staff turnover, but it’s not something that can be completely avoided. If you can increase the bus factor of your projects, you reduce the pain of any employee departures significantly.
How can you increase the bus factor for your project?
If you need to increase the bus factor of your project, you can do so in a number of ways.
Document key tasks
Bus factor risk can be avoided by encouraging information sharing and reinforcing the importance of properly documenting everything a person needs to know to do a job. Having good employee relations is key here, as team leaders are more likely to see the value in documenting their workflows if it’s pitched as a way to help avoid them feeling overworked during crunch time.
Encourage pair programming and code reviews for developers
Pair programming, daily stand-ups and regularly rotated teams are all ideas frequently employed in software development to help ensure information is distributed across teams. Even with these strategies, it can take time for a new hire to fully understand how the organization works.
Improve your onboarding process
Refining the onboarding " data-mce-lingo="en_us">onboarding process can help new hires get up to speed more quickly, and it may also improve staff retention. When new hires feel supported and that it’s safe to ask the questions they need to as they find their place within a team, they’re more likely to stay on at the company and earn enough experience to contribute to an increased bus factor.
Create a culture of sharing ideas and information
Fostering this kind of culture of sharing can be a challenge in teams with a lot of remote workers. Where possible, co-locating teams can be beneficial. Encouraging team members to spend some time in a communal office and some working privately or remotely according to their preferences can set your team up for success.
Include yourself in bus factor risk calculations
When you’re considering bus factor risks, factor your own role and that of other senior employees into the calculations. Can you afford to take time off? What would happen if you and your most senior team members all needed to go to a conference? Would the office grind to a halt without you?
Succession planning is an essential part of ensuring the longevity of any business. Effective succession planning involves thinking several years ahead. The incumbent leader may have three or more candidates being prepared to take on their role. This means if one of the candidates leaves, others are ready to step up and fill the leader’s shoes.
Succession planning is something that can be applied to employees and executives at any level, from preparing experienced employees to move into C-level positions to offering training and progression opportunities for middle management or team leaders. Providing these opportunities and a clear progression path at all levels of the organization helps boost morale while also securing the stability of your organization.
