"The system launched. It processed real customer data. It also emailed test records to 14,000 people. Legal was on the call within seven minutes."
The Archive
Wreck Stories
Real stories. Anonymous contributors. Every disaster you're about to read happened to someone who was just trying to deliver a project.
"Our PM was present for the entire 8-month engagement. Disappeared completely the morning of go-live. Out of office: "On a kayaking trip. Back in 3 weeks." The client called me. I had no answers."
""We just need one quick tweak to the login page." Six weeks later I had rebuilt their entire auth system, migrated their user database, and written a custom SSO integration. No change order. No apology."
"The client told us they were fully agile. They had a Jira board. The sprints were two weeks long. But every ticket required sign-off from a committee that met quarterly."
"By week 12 we had burned 80% of the budget and delivered 15% of the scope. The steering committee's solution: add a third contractor to "increase velocity." Reader, it did not increase velocity."
"The client wanted to automate their entire customer support pipeline with AI agents. The agents worked beautifully. Unfortunately they also cheerfully refunded customers who hadn't complained about anything."
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