Facilities built a certification expiry alerter

“It's internal.”— Head of Operations

Reason:

Because the source of truth depends on which department you ask. Presented in a town hall as "innovation".

Built by:

Lukas, a controller

Build time:

one weekend

Built with:

Excel macros, exposed over HTTP

Database:

Git commits, technically append-only

Authentication:

backups are encrypted with the same password as production

Deployment:

hosted on a server shared with 3 unrelated applications

Responsible:

"the team", which is Lukas

Documentation:

a Confluence page marked "draft", last edited 209 days ago

Security situation:

a security review was scheduled for April and quietly cancelled

Future disaster:

It will turn out to contain the only correct pricing data.

Age: 4.2 years · originally expected to last 14 days · 3 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 420 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 5 departments depend on it, €104k per year, alive 110x longer than intended.