Reducing “bus factor” risk

A low bus factor creates risk for your mission-critical programs and projects. (Yeah, I talked about this yesterday.)

In other words, if only one person understands how your systems really work, losing that one person (say they get hit by a bus) can stop you in your tracks.

So how to increase that bus factor, and how to reduce the risk?

Some common recommendations are:

• Reducing complexity, so it's easier for people to understand the systems.

• Maintaining thorough documentation, so complex systems can be understood.

• Cross-training, so there are more people with a working knowledge of the system.

These are indeed great. I do recommend them.

But it's also worth considering where your irreplaceable "bus-factor people" are positioned in your organization.

Are they internal to the organization, people who are invested in the organization and the mission?

Or instead, are they outside the organization — external contractors and service providers — who will have any number of other concerns competing for their attention?

Which of those is riskier? Which is more likely to become unavailable, and to be unable to pass on their knowledge to a successor?

I'm pretty sure your internal staff are the safer bet here.

Here's the thing:

When you need specialized expertise, it's smart to pull in an outside expert. Often, it's your only good option.

But what's not smart is relying on that outside expert to be the only one who fully understands some critical part of your systems.

Because when you do that, you're really not in control of your own systems, however strongly you might feel that you are.

All the best,
A.