Chapter 3. Dealing with bus factors
This chapter covers
- Bus factors and why they inhibit leadership
- How to remove bus factors
- How to avoid bus factors
Before I explore survival mode later in this book, I want to discuss one of the primary reasons for finding yourself in this mode. Bus factors are ubiquitous, and they’re a huge risk to your projects.
Bus factors
A bus factor can be defined this way: the number of people who need to get hit by a bus for the project or team to stop functioning. Therefore, a bus factor of one is the riskiest.
If you’ve worked in the software industry for any length of time, ask yourself, “Do I know a person in my project who, if they disappeared tomorrow, would leave the project or team stuck?” It’s unlikely ...
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