HR built an app only Kevin knows exists

“We have a backup somewhere.”— Marketing Manager

Reason:

Officially because the bug is now documented behaviour. With 124 users and zero documentation.

Built by:

Priya, a working student

Build time:

an afternoon, mostly

Built with:

WordPress with eleven plugins

Database:

an Oracle database that costs more than the application

Authentication:

the logout button refreshes the page

Deployment:

running on a server last patched 209 days ago

Responsible:

whoever still has the admin password

Documentation:

a 53 minute screen recording

Security situation:

the encryption key is stored next to the encrypted data

Future disaster:

It will gain 111 users before anyone approves it.

Age: 8.0 years · originally expected to last 2 months · 3 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 823 days ago

Rated common mostly because: €363k per year, 4 departments depend on it, alive 49x longer than intended.