Someone From Operations built a CSV merger

“It has a login screen.”— Ravi, Someone From Operations

Reason:

Officially because someone said "just add AI". With 936 users and zero documentation.

Built by:

Ravi, the management assistant

Build time:

a long Thursday

Built with:

Python and a cron job on a laptop

Database:

a vector database containing invoices for reasons

Authentication:

Thomas is still an admin because removing access felt risky

Deployment:

running on a development server labelled DO NOT RESTART

Responsible:

nobody. It has no owner.

Documentation:

an Excel tab called Instructions

Security situation:

the threat model is "why would anyone attack us?"

Future disaster:

It will become business critical in 4 months.

Age: 14 days · originally expected to last 3 weeks · 2 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 14 days ago · original builder left 34 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: 91% chance of becoming business critical, 5 departments depend on it, nobody owns it.