Taking a wrecking ball to a system.......

One of the systems I test at work is a Change Control system. Basically, when someone has a problem or needs something done, they enter the information into a change control system. That information is then passed to whoever needs to know about the request so they can make the proper changes, install new computers, etc.

So today, I was testing the system and I input a new change in the testing environment. As we testers so often do, we try to keep ourselves entertained while doing our work. Since this is a testing environment, I put in that the change was to 'Install a new right tackle on the Chiefs' offensive line'. I put the location as 'Arrowhead Stadium' and that the person issuing the request was 'Herm Edwards'. I then added a couple of groups to the request and hit the submit button.

Unknowingly, one of the groups that I had used on the change request was a group that is in Maryland. By hitting submit with that group on the request, the system had sent the request to a large group of workers in Maryland. Since the e-mail that is sent looks no different than the production version of the e-mail, everyone in the Maryland group went into panic mode thinking that someone had infiltrated the production system and was sending out spam/joke e-mails.

5 minutes later, I was sitting at my desk, not knowing that anything was amiss, when a co-worker that is a few rows over came by my desk and said that they were just coming by to verify that I existed. After I finished joking that I did, in fact, exist, he told me the situation and that the government people in Washington D.C. just wanted to verify that I existed and that there wasn't someone infiltrating the system who shouldn't have access. He chuckled that he didn't know why they couldn't figure out that a request for a right tackle requested by Herm Edwards would raise such eyebrows, but evidently it did.

No harm done in the end. Just more amusing than anything else. Also, all those government people in Maryland who thought they had got rid of me when I quit my job out there this summer now have to come to grips with the fact that I'm now causing havoc on government systems in Kansas City. I'm sure they're pretty happy about that.