An intern built a certification expiry alerter

“It's behind the VPN.”— Ravi, An intern

Reason:

Honestly? Because copy of copy of Suppliers_final_new2.xlsm is stored on Daniel's desktop. With 56 users and zero documentation.

Built by:

Ravi, a controller

Build time:

2 evenings

Built with:

Excel macros, exposed over HTTP

Database:

a Map().

Authentication:

email magic links to Anja's personal Gmail

Deployment:

running in a region 4 time zones away from its users

Responsible:

Ravi, who left 10 months ago

Documentation:

a README describing a version that no longer exists

Security situation:

debug mode is enabled in production

Future disaster:

It will be replaced by a second version of itself.

Age: 8.8 years · originally expected to last 2 months · 5 owners so far · survived 3 reorganisations · last meaningful change 823 days ago · original builder left 1992 days ago

Rated common mostly because: 123 users, 3 departments depend on it, alive 54x longer than intended.