Finance built a temporary migration helper

“We only need it until the consultant comes back.”— Marketing Manager

Reason:

Honestly? Because Budget2026.xlsx is stored on Olivier's desktop. Built during an offsite instead of the thing they were asked to build.

Built by:

Sarah, an intern

Build time:

an afternoon, mostly

Built with:

a REST API generated by something nobody can regenerate

Database:

a SQL Server instance called main-new that nobody is allowed to restart

Authentication:

the firewall rule says "temporary"

Deployment:

sharing a reverse proxy with the company Christmas raffle

Responsible:

Anja, until somebody notices

Documentation:

a Slack message saying "I'll document this later"

Security situation:

backups use the same password as production

Future disaster:

It will be mentioned in an audit finding using the words "material weakness".

Age: 4.4 years · originally expected to last 2 months · 5 owners so far · survived 3 reorganisations · last meaningful change 823 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: 4 accidental connections, 43 users, 26% chance of becoming business critical.