Satire
The Dependency Nobody Documented
The system has a hidden dependency on a service owned by a team in another timezone who doesn't know you exist.
The architecture diagram shows three services. Clean. Simple. Arrows pointing in the right direction.
The architecture diagram is wrong.
What Actually Happens
Somewhere between Service A and Service B there is a middleware layer that was "temporary" in 2021. It is now load-bearing. It is owned by a team that was restructured. Their Confluence page exists but was last updated by someone who left. The page says "see Amir for details." Amir is in a different business unit now. Amir does not remember this service.
You discover the dependency at 11:30 AM on a Tuesday when your deployment breaks in staging.
“I found 4 undocumented dependencies in the deployment pipeline. Two of them resolve via DNS aliases set up in 2019. I'm not touching those.”
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Let's talk architecture →How a Builder Should Respond
You run a dependency audit before any integration work, not after it breaks. Trace the actual network calls, not just the diagram. When you find an undocumented dependency, you own the documentation of it regardless of who owns the service — because you are the one who now understands it. You notify downstream teams, update the diagram, and establish a contact for that service. Systems don't document themselves. Someone has to.
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