AIUI there was no Team Duct Tape as it's portrayed in the film. The astronauts had solved the square-peg-into-round-hole problem during simulations of the LEM-as-lifeboat scenario for one of the previous Apollo missions, so they just worked out a procedure that re-created that. Similarly, using the descent engine in the event of service module engine failure was part of the original design spec. NASA were (still are) very, very, good at "what could possibly go wrong?"