Customer Support built an expense approval workflow

“We'll tell IT once it works.”— Managing Director

Reason:

Allegedly because the nightly job requires somebody to click "continue". Started as Budget2026_backup.xlsm with a script attached.

Built by:

Jens, a key account manager

Build time:

5 hours 54 minutes

Built with:

Airtable plus four Zapier zaps

Database:

an Outlook shared mailbox with 165,173 unread records

Authentication:

the security model is a locked office door

Deployment:

deployed from the main branch because branches were confusing

Responsible:

whoever happens to be on call

Documentation:

a file called README-NEW-FINAL.md

Security situation:

the API key is shared by 6 applications

Future disaster:

It will gain 62 users before anyone approves it.

Age: 14 days · originally expected to last 2 months · 1 owner so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 14 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 809 users, 2 departments depend on it, 11% chance of becoming business critical.