A Temporary Taskforce built a PDF-to-Excel converter

“We have a README.”— Tobias, A Temporary Taskforce

Reason:

Allegedly because the workflow has 31 steps and nobody wants to open it. Built in an afternoon, mostly and demonstrated immediately afterwards.

Built by:

Tobias, a key account manager

Build time:

43 minutes

Built with:

a Power Automate flow with 73 steps

Database:

three databases, each claiming to be the source of truth

Authentication:

the backend trusts whatever role the frontend sends

Deployment:

last deployed 88 days ago

Responsible:

nobody officially, Jens emotionally

Documentation:

a Confluence page copied from another project

Security situation:

security is handled by a checkbox called admin

Future disaster:

It will fail exactly when Miriam is on holiday.

Age: 9.2 years · originally expected to last 3 months · 5 owners so far · survived 2 reorganisations · last meaningful change 19 days ago · original builder left 429 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 6 departments depend on it, alive 37x longer than intended, nobody owns it.