Operations built a damaged goods register

“We have a README.”— Head of Operations

Reason:

Allegedly because the demo environment contains real customer data. Copied to production via floppy disks.

Built by:

Thomas, a field technician

Build time:

2 evenings

Built with:

Supabase, with the service role key somewhere unfortunate

Database:

a Google Sheet with an Apps Script nobody remembers writing

Authentication:

the office IP is allow-listed, including the coffee shop next door

Deployment:

behind a domain that still contains the word demo

Responsible:

a project group that technically no longer exists

Documentation:

none whatsoever

Security situation:

MFA exists for the admin account, which everybody shares

Future disaster:

It will be replaced by an Excel file during the migration.

Age: 8.8 years · originally expected to last 4 weeks · 3 owners so far · survived 3 reorganisations · last meaningful change 823 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 88 users, alive 107x longer than intended, older than the department using it.