Aperture: Senior QA (2004-2005)
3 months ago
- #Software Development
- #Aperture
- #Apple
- The author reflects on their time working on Apple's Aperture project, describing it as a roller coaster of emotions.
- Paul Marcos, a mentor, played a key role in the author joining the Aperture team after leaving the Mail team.
- The team was assembled with mutual respect and included notable figures like Randy Ubillos and Stan Jirman.
- Aperture was developed under intense pressure to beat Adobe's Lightroom, with a fixed ship date for the PhotoPlus+Expo in 2005.
- The team was highly skilled and cohesive, with a strong sense of humor and camaraderie.
- Unique team practices included collaboration between software and QA engineers on test plans before coding.
- Professional photographers were hired to test Aperture, enhancing the product's development.
- Management issues arose as the ship date approached, leading to feature cuts, yelling, and mandatory overtime.
- The author publicly opposed mandatory overtime, leading to a confrontation with management.
- A new QA manager was imposed without team input, causing further tension and a disastrous meeting.
- Management attempted to appease the team with gifts, but the distribution was uneven and seen as favoritism.
- Adding over 130 engineers to the project late in development caused chaos and delayed progress further.
- Despite the challenges, Aperture shipped on time, but the original team left due to poor management.
- Bertrand Serlet helped the original engineers find new roles within Apple, countering negative gossip.
- The author and others suffered long-term health effects from the stress, but some positive memories remain.
- Years later, the author reconnected with Randy Ubillos, reflecting on the positive aspects of the Aperture team.