I couldnt hold a candle to Brian Green on such topics as Quantum Entaglement, Higgs Boson, or Grand Unifed Theory (despite

obtaining a B.A. in
Physics), however I can apply the scientifc method to improving the performance of your software.
In this article I will explain a basic, but often overlooked foundation for improving the performance of any software application.
Much of software development is an art, but performance tuning is a science.
Ive seen a lot of good developers waste time signifcant amounts of time on
performance with little to show for it, or just as bad, improve performance
without knowing exactly which change had the desired effect.
Do you remember talking about the Scientifc Method from your high school
science class? The diagram on the right is a refresher. The scientifc method
is the repeatable process on which all scientifc exploration is based. It gives
scientists across the world a common language and framework to compare the
process and outcomes of experiments.
The scientifc process provides a few of important points that can be applied to
software performance optimization:
1. Repeatable process use the same process for every performance
enhancement you make
2. Only modify one variable at a time Do not make multiple tweaks at the
same time.
3. Record the results of each optimization. Track what you did and how
much it helped.
This sounds simple right? It is. The tough part for software developers is
to never break these rules during a round of optimizations. To the right Ive
also included a more detailed diagram of what the scientifc process looks
like when applied to performance optimization. Lets call it the Performance
Optimization Method.
But I know what Im doing! Why shouldnt I make multiple tweaks at once?
Lets say you do make two changes at once. You optimize two queries and
drop the page load time from 3s to .1s. Do you know how much relative
impact the changes had? Did each change reduce the cost by the same
amount (50%/50%)? Did one query account for most of the cost (75%/25%)?
Or did one of the changes not even have any impact (100%/0%)? What if
the two changes were somehow interdependent? For the most part these
questions are impossible to answer unless you use a repeatable process and
only modify one variable at a time. There are exceptions *(there are always
exceptions. If you have a good profling tool that tells you exactly what two
different method calls cost and you are absolutely sure they are not somehow
related then you could cut a corner and make multiple changes at once. If
the results do not turn out as expected you still need to go back and make the
changes one at a time). By the way, I hope you are testing against a volume of
data you expect in production.
Performance Optimization: Doing Science
by Christopher G. Johnson
Is my application
fast enough?
Finished:
Report the results
Research:
Profle, Take Timings
Construct Hypothesis:
If I change X,
performance will
Increase by Y
Test:
Change X
Analyze:
Take timings again
under the same
conditions
Did performance
improve?
YES
NO
YES
2
Dont forget to record the result of each optimization. This way you can throw your results into a table, and with a little explanation about the
process and results you turn it into a report and send it to management so they can see how youre spending their budget (and how good you are at
science). Having these sorts of metrics reports also makes it easy for stakeholders to justify the time spent on performance optimization activities.
The law of diminishing returns applies to performance enhancements. At some point you will have picked all of the low-hanging fruit and
enhancements start to get progressively more expensive. Stakeholders need insight into how this is progressing on your project so they can make
decisions on how much more to spend on performance. Metrics reports should provide suffcient detail for stakeholders to make those decisions.
Ultimately you will end up with a faster application and a clear story of how you got there. Isnt science fun?
About the Author:
Christopher G. Johnson is a software developer working at Geneca and specializes in applications that use Grails, Rails, and J2EE. Chris lives in
Bolingbrook, Illinois with his wife Dayna and dog Rallie.
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