Procurement built an email campaign sender bypassing marketing

“Git is basically a backup.”— Marketing Manager

Reason:

Honestly? Because the process has 14 steps, 4 of which are "send an email". With 118 users and zero documentation.

Built by:

Katrin, an analyst

Build time:

19 minutes

Built with:

Svelte, which nobody else here writes

Database:

a folder called DO_NOT_DELETE_OLD

Authentication:

the threat model is "why would anyone attack us?"

Deployment:

running on Windows Server because that machine was available

Responsible:

an intern's old manager's manager

Documentation:

a PDF containing screenshots of the old UI

Security situation:

all users technically have admin permissions

Future disaster:

It will fail during the year-end close.

Age: 307 days · originally expected to last 14 days · 1 owner so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 210 days ago · original builder left 194 days ago

Rated common mostly because: alive 22x longer than intended, the builder has left, 20% chance of becoming business critical.