Thinking Clearly About Performance, Part 1.

The article presents information on axiomatic methods for optimizing computer software performance. The usefulness of axiomatic reasoning for ensuring clear and testable improvements is discussed. It is noted that the majority of software performance improvements involve speed of response. Various e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications of the ACM Vol. 53; no. 9; pp. 55 - 61
Main Author: MILLSAP, CARY
Format: Article
Published: Association for Computing Machinery Sep2010
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:The article presents information on axiomatic methods for optimizing computer software performance. The usefulness of axiomatic reasoning for ensuring clear and testable improvements is discussed. It is noted that the majority of software performance improvements involve speed of response. Various examples of how a solution which seems to work well in theory can actually fail in practice are provided. Replacing simple averages with distribution percentages is recommended as a means of identifying problems more accurately.