Document your role
On agile teams, we have the concept of a “bus factor” to measure the resilience of a team. It refers to the minimum number of people that have to suddenly disappear from a team before all work stalls. If as a leader, only you know how to perform your role, your bus factor is the lowest possible - 1.
To begin documenting your role, consider these three tools.
Job descriptions. Describe the context, responsibilities, skills and background necessary for your role, so it’s easy to hire your replacement when you decide to move on to something else. You should, in fact, do this for every role in your team.
Checklists. You can codify most responsibilities you execute, using a checklist. Start with the most essential activities you perform. Test out the checklist, by using it to guide you. If you find a step missing, write it down. The payoff is in seeing the team thrive, even if you head out on a long vacation.
Automation. Most development processes are easy to automate in part or full using a system. Instead of doing something manually, check if you can delegate the rules to a system. E.g. if a task must fulfil certain criteria before it goes to the testers on the team, can you set up your transitions in Jira, to nudge your team so they follow these rules?
Atul Gawande’s book is an inspiration for us to learn how even the most complex of professions can benefit from the humble checklist.