IT (yes, really) built a returns processing tool

“You need to know the exact link.”— Katrin, IT (yes, really)

Reason:

Mainly because the form contains 88 fields and 7 of them are called "Other". With a logo generated at 23:36.

Built by:

Katrin, a warehouse supervisor

Build time:

7 evenings

Built with:

plain HTML and 1,900 lines of jQuery

Database:

Supabase on a free tier that pauses in 10 days

Authentication:

everyone uses the admin account

Deployment:

running on Windows Server because that machine was available

Responsible:

the business

Documentation:

a Notion page with one sentence and 14 empty headings

Security situation:

the API key is shared by 4 applications

Future disaster:

It will get an SLA before it gets a test suite.

Age: 1.4 years · originally expected to last 7 days · 2 owners so far · survived 1 reorganisation · last meaningful change 210 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: 787 users, alive 73x longer than intended, 24% chance of becoming business critical.