The bus factor is a term used to describe the number of people needed to be removed from a team before the project they are working on fails. The idea is that if a bus hit a team of developers, and killed them all, would the project they were working on be able to continue? If the answer is no, then the bus factor for that team is one.

The bus factor is a important metric to consider when building a team of developers, as it can help identify potential risks. For example, if a team has a bus factor of one, then it is clear that the project would be in trouble if that one developer was no longer able to work on it. In contrast, a team with a bus factor of five would be much more resilient to losing a single developer.

There are many ways to increase a team’s bus factor, such as by ensuring that there is more than one person with expertise in each area of the project, or by using collaborative tools that make it easy for others to pick up where someone left off. Ultimately, the goal is to have a team that can weather any storm, no matter how big or small.