Logistics built a dashboard showing data copied manually from another dashboard

“We only need it until the consultant comes back.”— Managing Director

Reason:

Allegedly because Elena has the only working copy of Invoices_Q3_new.xlsx. Started as Budget2026_old.xlsm with a script attached.

Built by:

Olivier, a warehouse supervisor

Build time:

a long Thursday

Built with:

WordPress with eleven plugins and one critical shortcode

Database:

passwords stored in a column called password

Authentication:

the shared account belongs to Kevin, who left 10 months ago

Deployment:

running on a server last patched 209 days ago

Responsible:

Tobias, because their email address is in the config

Documentation:

none, but the variable names are "pretty clear"

Security situation:

security is handled by keeping the URL secret

Future disaster:

It will fail during the year-end close.

Age: 44 days · originally expected to last 3 months · 2 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 3 days ago

Rated common mostly because: €521k per year, 124 users, 28% chance of becoming business critical.