Logistics built a contract deadline reminder bot

“It's basically an internal tool.”— Priya, Logistics

Reason:

Mainly because the ticket has been open for 88 days. Started as Stock_list_use-this-one_new2.xlsx with a script attached.

Built by:

Priya, a field technician

Build time:

a long Thursday

Built with:

Airtable plus four Zapier zaps

Database:

a MySQL database called temp on a machine under a desk

Authentication:

logging out just hides the menu

Deployment:

deployed into production because staging was broken

Responsible:

a contractor invoicing €1082/day through a third party

Documentation:

a README containing 8 broken links

Security situation:

a security review was scheduled for July and quietly cancelled

Future disaster:

It will delete records older than 65 days, including the important ones.

Age: 8.7 years · originally expected to last 3 weeks · 4 owners so far · survived 2 reorganisations · last meaningful change 210 days ago

Rated common mostly because: alive 151x longer than intended, 37% chance of becoming business critical, older than the department using it.