The CRM Team built an on-call rota in a shared doc with a UI

“We'll add backups later.”— Group Controller

Reason:

Officially because the CRM needs 6 clicks and two approvals to record two hours of overtime. Built during an offsite instead of the thing they were asked to build.

Built by:

Katrin, an intern

Build time:

one weekend

Built with:

an Electron app, for a form

Database:

a MySQL database called main on a machine under a desk

Authentication:

the audit log is console.log

Deployment:

deployed on Wednesday immediately before a public holiday

Responsible:

Bastian, who insists they are not the owner

Documentation:

an architecture diagram containing a box labelled "magic happens here"

Security situation:

it was reviewed once, by Katrin, who built it

Future disaster:

It will stop working after someone renames a column.

Age: 2.9 years · originally expected to last 3 months · 3 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 74 days ago · original builder left 957 days ago

Rated common mostly because: the builder has left, alive 12x longer than intended, 1 accidental connections.