People Operations built a support escalation tracker

“The API isn't documented.”— Head of Operations

Reason:

Because Anja from People Operations is on holiday until April. With 655 users and 58 feature requests.

Built by:

Lukas, the management assistant

Build time:

an afternoon, mostly

Built with:

a Rails app from 2016 nobody updated

Database:

a mini PC behind the reception desk

Authentication:

the admin page is hidden by removing the link

Deployment:

running on Windows Server because that machine was available

Responsible:

Marco, who has never seen the source code

Documentation:

one README with 8 TODOs

Security situation:

security is handled by a checkbox called admin

Future disaster:

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

Age: 249 days · originally expected to last 3 months · 1 owner so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 249 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 5 departments depend on it, 53% chance of becoming business critical, €21k per year.