[bayindirh]

In a previous project I worked on, we used to nickname the passwords used throughout the system. The password re-use was virtually non-existent, but sometimes we forgot which system required which one (we were installing and erasing a lot of servers for testing stuff).

So, someone would ask a password to a system, we'd answer "ridiculously long one", or "the one X came up with", "variation 5".

When one of the security guys overheard what we did, and asked the details, we told what we do. The answer was "oh, that's neat!, go on".

[Tempest1981]

How did the initial communication occur? Whiteboard? In person? Shared vault?

[bayindirh]

Long living passwords shared via paper, and lived on people (like on their wallet, and never laid in the open), the other short lived ones are just remembered, but not mentally tied to anywhere.

It was a fast-paced project, so the project dynamics made the method work. If the systems and passwords were more stable, it might not have worked this well.