Understanding Bus Factor
Identify critical knowledge concentrated in too few qualified people.
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1What Bus Factor means
Bus Factor describes how many people could be unavailable before a project loses essential knowledge. There is no universal exact formula. FlowDash shows an operational estimate using your critical knowledge coverage.
2FlowDash estimate
For each critical knowledge area, count distinct holders at or above the selected proficiency threshold. The lowest count is the estimate under a total-loss-of-coverage assumption. An uncovered area reports zero rather than hiding the gap.
3Example
In the Software sample, Deployment pipeline has one qualified holder. The estimate is 1 and the concentration risk is Critical. Frontend architecture has three qualified holders and therefore moderate concentration under this heuristic.
4Limitations and action
Counts 1, 2, 3 and 4+ are labelled Critical, High, Moderate and Lower risk. Incomplete records, correlated absences, undocumented skills and partial capability loss can change actual risk. Cross-train and document knowledge; do not treat this as an employment prediction.