Chinese Version
05-28-2021, Friday, Cloudy

Before the summer of 2001, the Internet bubble had just begun to collapse. eBay was one of the few thriving Internet companies in Silicon Valley at that time.

To improve eBay for the future, the company decided in early 2002 to replace eBay’s existing computer language, C++, with a new computer language called Java. Around that time, I was transferred to Jenifer’s selling team from Jim’s core team, as a selling domain expert.

Unlike conventional office building blocks that are visible to human eyes, software system blocks are invisible and are built up by computer languages line by line, which makes the latter more difficult to understand.

Replacing an office building using new materials requires redoing underground sewers, current electrical and cables, plumbing, ventilation and exhaust pipes, and mechanical systems, as well as on the steel bars, concrete walls, doors and windows, lighting, networks, and different indoor devices in various rooms.

Replacing a large software system, such as the one is currently used by eBay, using a new computer language, is a similarly arduous project. For example, each line of the existing code must be properly translated into the new language, otherwise, it would be like trying to fix a joint of a shaking furniture with a screw that doesn’t fit. Such a small mistake might cause a part of the new system to fail.

After Thanksgiving in 2002, I joined the newly formed SYI conversion team included Richard (manager), Keith (project manager), Vijay (architect), Eric (tech lead), and ten developers: I, Vivian, Brandon, Masaki, Manish, Ashit, etc., to work on replacing the selling system, SYI (SellYourItem) page, using the new Java language.

Before eBay had acquired Paypal, SYI was eBay’s main revenue generator. eBay charged sellers for listing their items on its website. SYI provided optional features, such as bolding the item title in the search, adding more photos to the item, and indicating the item can be wrapped as a gift, etc. eBay would charge additional fess if the sellers selected any of those features.

A war room was created for twelve of us in the SYI conversion team, and the two managers had their own cubicles outside the war room.

We came to the war room, which was a long and narrow conference room located on the second floor of the Motors Building, from different buildings. Because one row of people sat against the wall and another row of people sat facing the window in the war room, the middle aisle of the war room became very narrow. I had to walk sideways in the war room and watch out for the electric wires and plugs on the floor.

We experienced a few power outages right after we moved into the war room. Initially, we thought they were building-wide power outages. After realizing that the power outages were isolated to the war room, we joked: “The workload for this project was so heavy, even the computers wanted a break.” The ten developers simultaneously and effectively working on their computers caused the electrical current in the war room to exceed the rated current, resulting in the power outages.

When the war room had power outages, I couldn’t move my computer back to my old cubicle in another building to work there. Others were in the same situation. Therefore, Keith had to find cubicles near the war room for us to power up our computers and sit down to continue our time critical tasks, as it was unacceptable for developers to be idle at eBay in 2002.

Keith also had to escalate the war room power outages to management for a quick response from maintenance division outside of our technology devision. The power outage was fixed in less than a week, and we didn’t experience any more power outages after that.

I still remember Keith, a chubby boy at that time. Because of him, I understood that a project manager is a broker between engineers and management, and the good broker made the project progress smoothly.

The SYI conversion project, which reshaped eBay system kernel (kernel acts as an interface between applications and CPU, memory, and devices), took more than a half-year. Because I had to work in the office in the evenings for this project, my nine-year-old daughter and four-year-old son had to go after school and then stay at other’s houses until 9:00PM on school days.

Still, the SYI conversion project was delivered to the website successfully and on time. I think this project was the cornerstone of eBay’s entrance into a new era.