HR built a non-conformance register

“We can rebuild it properly later.”— Group Controller

Reason:

Because the export button creates Headcount_new_v2.xlsx, but nobody knows where. With dark mode and no error handling.

Built by:

Elena, the management assistant

Build time:

one weekend

Built with:

Python and a cron job on a laptop

Database:

Cosmos DB because somebody had Azure credits

Authentication:

the refresh token never expires, for convenience

Deployment:

deployed 40 minutes before the builder went on holiday

Responsible:

Bastian, who inherited it during a reorganisation

Documentation:

a file called how-it-works-v2-final-final.docx

Security situation:

the audit log is console.log

Future disaster:

It will be replaced by another tool built by Elena.

Age: 2.2 years · originally expected to last 7 days · 2 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 788 days ago · original builder left 258 days ago

Rated legendary mostly because: €589k per year, 92% chance of becoming business critical, 4 accidental connections.