Operations built a knowledge base with a search that does not search

“It's only one database.”— Kevin, Operations

Reason:

Mainly because the workaround has its own workaround. Built in a long Thursday and demonstrated immediately afterwards.

Built by:

Kevin, an analyst

Build time:

an afternoon, mostly

Built with:

Python and a cron job on a laptop

Database:

two databases kept "mostly in sync"

Authentication:

Jens knows the password

Deployment:

hosted on Sofia's personal Vercel account

Responsible:

a steering committee that has not met in 16 months

Documentation:

a Word document called Customers_v2.csv

Security situation:

no security review, no plans for one

Future disaster:

It will be discovered during due diligence.

Age: 45 days · originally expected to last 3 weeks · 2 owners so far · last meaningful change 19 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 19% chance of becoming business critical, €3k per year, alive 2x longer than intended.