HR built a barcode scanner that only works on one phone

“AWS probably handles that.”— Head of Operations

Reason:

Officially because the form takes 19 minutes to complete and times out after 13. With 159 users and zero documentation.

Built by:

Olivier, an intern

Build time:

5 evenings

Built with:

a no-code builder on a personal account

Database:

Git commits, technically append-only

Authentication:

permissions are managed by copying another user's account

Deployment:

last deployed 411 days ago

Responsible:

Sofia, who inherited it during a reorganisation

Documentation:

a Word document called copy of copy of Customers_backup.xlsx

Security situation:

the database is reachable from the public internet

Future disaster:

It will make an audit take 3 extra weeks.

Age: 5.2 years · originally expected to last 4 weeks · 1 owner so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 74 days ago · original builder left 1542 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 121 users, alive 63x longer than intended, the builder has left.