Don't be defensive with your knowledge
Sharing what you know will never make you less relevant
In IT as in most industries, success is rarely achieved alone. Whether you're writing code, managing infrastructure, or designing complex systems, teamwork is essential. However, many teams unintentionally depend on a few individuals who hold critical knowledge, creating what’s known as the "bus factor" the risk of a project stalling if a key person is no longer available.
This issue often arises from a reluctance to share knowledge, a fear of losing relevance, or even intentional gatekeeping. These habits can undermine trust, slow progress, and make systems more fragile than they need to be. Instead, IT professionals should aim to foster an environment where knowledge is shared openly and collaboration is encouraged.
This one is about why these practices are so important and how they can strengthen teams and improve results.
This can be useful from junior to manager.
The Bus Factor: Why It Matters
In any project, the knowledge and expertise of team members are the driving forces behind success. However, when key knowledge, such as being the only person who knows how to perform a production deployment, resides with only one or two individuals, the entire project is at risk if those people become unavailable. This concept is known as the "bus factor," named after the grim thought experiment: how many people would need to be hit by a bus before the project comes to a standstill? While the term is darkly humorous, the implications are serious.
Understanding the Bus Factor
The bus factor is a measure of how vulnerable a project is to the absence of key contributors. A low bus factor indicates that critical knowledge is concentrated in a few individuals, creating a significant risk. If one of these people leaves the organization, becomes unavailable, or is reassigned, their unique knowledge might be lost, leaving the rest of the team unable to move forward efficiently.
Conversely, a high bus factor indicates that knowledge is distributed across the team. This reduces reliance on any single individual and ensures continuity even if someone departs. Achieving a high bus factor requires fostering a culture of open communication, documentation, and collaboration across any team.
Real-World Examples of Low Bus Factors
The consequences of a low bus factor can be seen across industries. This often manifests as delays, rework, or even project failures when a key person leaves unexpectedly. Consider the following scenarios:
1. The Sole Developer Syndrome: A startup hires a single developer to create their product—a common scenario in early-stage companies. The developer works independently, with minimal documentation and no effort to share knowledge. When the developer resigns, the remaining team struggles to decipher the codebase. Progress halts as they scramble to reverse-engineer the work.
2. Specialized Knowledge Bottleneck: A large organization relies on one database administrator (DBA) who has been with the company for over a decade. This person knows the system inside out but hasn’t documented their processes or trained others. When they suddenly retire, the team encounters issues with routine maintenance and troubleshooting. Tasks that once took hours now take days or weeks.
3. System Integrations in Silos: In a consulting firm, one engineer handles a complex integration between two critical systems. When the client requests a modification, the engineer is on an extended leave. Because no one else on the team is familiar with the integration’s nuances, the project misses its deadline, leading to client dissatisfaction and financial penalties.
Cultivating a Collaborative Environment
A productive and resilient team resembles a well-tended garden, where every member contributes to its growth and health. In this "little garden" metaphor, each individual’s knowledge, skills, and efforts combine to create a thriving ecosystem. Just as a garden requires consistent care, collaboration depends on openness, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to growth.
Openness involves sharing ideas, knowledge, and responsibilities without hesitation. It ensures that critical information is not confined to a single individual but is accessible to all. Mutual respect allows team members to learn from one another, recognizing that every contribution, no matter how small, plays a vital role in achieving collective success. Growth happens when team members support each other’s development, fostering an environment where everyone can flourish.
Gatekeeping the act of withholding information or restricting access to opportunitie is the opposite of cultivating a collaborative environment. It creates barriers that hinder innovation, alienates team members, and slows progress. When individuals hoard knowledge or set arbitrary standards for inclusion, they stifle the potential of the team as a whole.
Inclusive practices, on the other hand, strengthen teams by encouraging diverse perspectives and ensuring that all members feel valued. When everyone has a voice and equal access to information, the team becomes more adaptable and resilient. For example, onboarding new members becomes smoother when existing knowledge is readily shared. Similarly, problem-solving improves when team members with different experiences collaborate openly.
By embracing openness and rejecting gatekeeping, teams can build a culture of trust and cooperation. This not only increases the bus factor but also fosters an environment where everyone can contribute meaningfully and thrive together.
Reflecting and Moving Forward
Fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration brings countless benefits to any team. It reduces risks, ensures continuity, and creates an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to learn and contribute. Teams with high bus factors are more resilient, innovative, and capable of navigating challenges effectively.
As you reflect on your own practices, ask yourself: Are you actively contributing to a collaborative environment? Are you sharing your knowledge openly and encouraging others to do the same? By committing to being an open and supportive professional, you can help build stronger teams and ensure lasting success for everyone involved.
Great article Riccardo.
In my experience, I've seen more cases of low bus factor where the name of the game was to hide what one knew. It becomes a terrible work environment for newcomers. From what I understood by talking to many senior folks, they see it as a matter of survival in an increasingly cost-driven environment. There's no room to grow further so they tend to cling to stuff they control and not share it with anyone.
I don't know how to solve it at an org level. How can everyone keep growing so they have an incentive to share what they know? Or maybe if there's no room to grow in the org, people should also look elsewhere. But at the team level, sure things can be made more open and accessible to all.
Thanks for the mention as well!
Thank you for taking the time 👍