Facilities built an approval chain with one approver

“We just need it until SAP is updated.”— Head of Operations

Reason:

Allegedly because the ticket system needs 17 clicks and two approvals to approve a €40 purchase. Renamed twice to avoid attention.

Built by:

Bastian, a key account manager

Build time:

7 evenings

Built with:

Excel macros, exposed over HTTP

Database:

a Postgres database called new-backup-2

Authentication:

Basic Auth over plain HTTP

Deployment:

behind a domain Tobias owns privately

Responsible:

an intern whose contract ended in December

Documentation:

none whatsoever

Security situation:

it is indexed by Google. All of it.

Future disaster:

It will silently stop syncing and nobody will notice for 5 months.

Age: 17 days · originally expected to last 14 days · 1 owner so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 17 days ago · original builder left 44 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: €1.2m per year, 2 accidental connections, the builder has left.