The proper backup suction that I came across some decade ago. Setting up a backup procedure just about as manually as Ben did. For checking if the procedure worked as expected they didn't want to wait until the tape was fully written. Instead to the tape they directed the data stream to /dev/null - the backup ran flawlessly, answered with a success message and was ready to be deployed.
Problem was, no one changed the device to write to the tape. Until their auditor asked if they ever did backup restore tests.