[ThemalSpan]

Anecdotally, I didn't find the situation internally to be much better. Many bugs internally go unanswered because there is not enough time allocated to fixing core systems and designing better replacements. The truth is, I know personally of several teams that aren't able to get through the queue of internally filed and scheduled bugs.

To me, it feels like Apple hasn't resourced core pieces of infrastructure and engineering teams in line with upper management's plans for growth. While many teams are relatively sequestered, once you start talking to folks elsewhere in the company it becomes clear that many teams are struggling to stay above water. More still, everyone shrugs about it because it's not clear exactly what is wrong. The best description I've heard is in many cases engineers are willing to offer hacks as a solution to meet management's demands, and management is either willing to accept those hacks or doesn't know better. That is far from a full picture, and its an example drawn from a small slice of an enormous company. But it seems telling to me. I find it completely reasonable to imagine that most teams in a place to deal with customer facing bugs don't have adequate time to do so. Not to their satisfaction, never mind customers.

At the same time, I think it can be hard to appreciate the ways in which Apple is ahead of the curve as far as the categories of software projects it tackles. So I don't mean to imply that anyone is really to blame per se. And it's also a shame because Radar was the greatest bug tracker I have ever used. It is unclear to me if Apple doesn't prioritize menial things like handling external bug reports, or if problems like that are not visible to / perceived by those in the company who could do something about it.

[DoofusOfDeath]

I wonder if it's as simple as this: a company that's making so much money just has no incentive to improve. After all, if the end goal of a company like Apple is to make money, they're already doing it.

[arvinsim]

Improving processes and hiring new people shouldn't be a big dent to their massive revenues though.

[andrekandre]

probably not, but from my anecdotal experience with upper managers (i don’t work at apple), every little bit counts towards “hitting the targets”...it seems unfortunately almost nowhere is immune to this pathological way of thinking...

[jjirsa]

> I wonder if it's as simple as this

The answer to questions of this form is almost always “no”

[grey-area]

What made radar stand out for you compared to other tools?

[dagamer34]

Apple's culture is such that everything is in Radar. EVERYTHING. It doesn't get done if it's not in Radar.

Positive: Everything is searchable. It is organizational history going back decades. The company is built around this tool. Negative: The importance of such a tool goes unrecognized compared to the criticality of the system to Apple as a whole. So when it's slow or breaks, everyone is having a bad day.

[redwoodmonkey]

I agree with you - Radar was a great bug tracking system. The fault isn't with the program, but the process. -- corbin

[JKCalhoun]

> …it becomes clear that many teams are struggling to stay above water. More still, everyone shrugs about it because it's not clear exactly what is wrong…

Nail on the head.