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Vol. I · No. 251
Mon · 8 Jun
A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data
The Lexicon

005·75

it runs on dave's laptop

/ɪt rʌnz ɒn deɪvz ˈlæp.tɒp/ - phr.

1 [colloq.] The architecture diagram for a critical daily process, redrawn every time Dave takes a vacation.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. An informal note that a production-relevant process executes on an individual workstation rather than managed infrastructure, with no redundancy or oversight.

Filed
See also
  • brittle jobA job documented entirely in the muscle memory of the one person who knows which step to re-run first.
  • cron jobA line of asterisks on a server in the closet, quietly running the business since a tenure no one present can confirm.
  • pipeline ownershipA field in the catalog set to the name of someone who left in March.
  • shadow pipelineThe pipeline the org does not know it depends on, discovered the week the person who ran it stops answering.