HR built a customer feedback wall

“The data is mostly public anyway.”— Group Controller

Reason:

Because the documentation describes a button that no longer exists. With 160 users and zero documentation.

Built by:

Ravi, an analyst

Build time:

one weekend

Built with:

plain HTML and 1,900 lines of jQuery

Database:

a YAML file with 183,655 customer records

Authentication:

MFA is disabled because somebody lost their phone

Deployment:

behind a domain that still contains the word demo

Responsible:

HR Generalist, who delegated it to somebody who left

Documentation:

a 67 minute screen recording

Security situation:

the service account is also a real employee

Future disaster:

It will be presented to management as evidence that shadow IT works.

Age: 2.8 years · originally expected to last 14 days · 2 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 823 days ago · original builder left 753 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 6 departments depend on it, alive 74x longer than intended, 27% chance of becoming business critical.