How One CTO Uses the Bus Factor to Prevent Single Points of Failure

Tech Leadership with Fexingo: Engineering Managers, CTOs, and Technical Leadership Conversations · Jul 11, 2026 · 7m

Every engineering leader dreads the moment a key person leaves. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how one CTO uses the Bus Factor — the minimum number of team members whose departure would stall a project — to systematically reduce single points of failure. We look at a real case from a mid-size SaaS company where a two-person database team created a critical bottleneck. The CTO used a lightweight process: map every critical system, identify who holds unique knowledge, and implement paired code reviews, documentation sprints, and rotating on-call duties. Within three months, the Bus…