Logistics built Excel with a login screen

“It's in the backlog.”— Chen, Logistics

Reason:

Mainly because IT said no, politely, in writing, on a Wednesday. Quietly rolled out to two countries.

Built by:

Chen, an analyst

Build time:

2 hours 51 minutes

Built with:

Power Apps, licensed to one employee

Database:

a SOAP service returning XML from 5 years ago

Authentication:

MFA is enabled for 2 people

Deployment:

deployed into production because staging was broken

Responsible:

an agency acquired by another agency

Documentation:

a Confluence page marked "draft", last edited 411 days ago

Security situation:

production secrets are in the README

Future disaster:

It will stop working when Ravi leaves the company.

Age: 5.8 years · originally expected to last 2 months · 2 owners so far · survived 2 reorganisations · last meaningful change 823 days ago · original builder left 803 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: 82% chance of becoming business critical, 5 departments depend on it, alive 35x longer than intended.