The Management Assistant built a status page for internal systems

“We didn't have time for a ticket.”— Jens, The Management Assistant

Reason:

Honestly? Because the HR system needs 31 clicks and two approvals to change a phone number. With 2 users, one of whom is the CEO.

Built by:

Jens, the management assistant

Build time:

one weekend

Built with:

a Rails app from 2016 nobody updated

Database:

an Access database called copy of copy of Invoices_Q3_final_FINAL_final_FINAL.xlsm with 4 linked tables

Authentication:

permissions are managed in a spreadsheet

Deployment:

deployed from a Git commit nobody has pushed

Responsible:

a Teams channel with 2 active members

Documentation:

an architecture diagram with 5 arrows labelled API

Security situation:

the security exception expires every year and is renewed every year

Future disaster:

It will become the source of truth in 2 months.

Age: 6.0 years · originally expected to last 3 months · 1 owner so far · survived 2 reorganisations · last meaningful change 823 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 116 users, alive 24x longer than intended, 22% chance of becoming business critical.