Nothing is more permanent than a temporary exception.
The exception was approved for thirty days. That was several budget cycles ago.
It was a reasonable request. A system needed to keep working while a replacement was built. The replacement needed funding. The funding needed a business case. The business case needed the system to keep working.
The lifecycle of “just for now”
First, it is a workaround. Then it is an exception. Then it is a dependency. Eventually, someone points out that changing it would create risk.
By this stage, the original ticket has become an archaeological artifact. Its author has moved on. The workaround has a distribution list, a recovery procedure, and one person who knows which order to click things in.
A modest proposal
Every temporary exception should have a named owner, an actual end condition, and a reminder that a renewal is another decision. A calendar entry is cheaper than discovering your workaround has become infrastructure.
Until then, happy anniversary to the temporary fix. We got it a cake.