bus factor

Definition

The number of team members who could get hit by a bus before your project is doomed. If only one person understands the codebase, your bus factor is one, and you should probably document things.

Example Usage

Our bus factor is basically one—only Steve understands the deployment pipeline and he's talking about taking a sabbatical.

Origin

Emerged in software engineering culture in the 1990s, sometimes sanitized as 'truck factor' or 'lottery factor'

Fun Fact

Some companies now call it the 'lottery factor' to avoid morbid imagery, but everyone knows you're more likely to quit than win the lottery, making it technically less accurate.

Source: Software project management and team planning practices

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