TheModularWay

Published: 21 October 2012

Optimize for performance

Why is performance crucial?

In today's age page load times over two seconds are almost always unacceptable. Performance is not limited to just page load time but to system stability under stress as well as agility with regards to expansion possibilities.

This holds true for all aspects of a business life cycle and yet oftentimes projects are developed and even completed without consideration to this.

Most times this is compounded by the fact that there are no early warning systems in place to notify of potential performance issues.

Invest little to gain a lot

Assume that a task has two independent parts, A and B. B takes roughly 25% of the time of the whole computation. By working very hard, one may be able to make this part 5 times faster, but this only reduces the time for the whole computation by a little. In contrast, one may need to perform less work to make part A be twice as fast. This will make the computation much faster than by optimizing part B, even though B's speed-up is greater by ratio.

Low-hanging fruit taste best

Most often the initial steps are the easiest and yield the best results.

Be among the best-in-class businesses that are optimizing with a clear understanding of the law of diminishing returns.

Measure and quantify

Without tools to benchmark and profile in place, accurate data is unattainable. This means that the foundation of optimization lies within a well-defined framework of data aggregators.

  • Compare Apples to Apples

    As with content comparison it is imperative to segment changes and attribute results to the correct causes.

  • Don't introduce changes unless you can measure the individual outcome of each change

    While this sounds trivial, most businesses don't have the tools or capabilities of letting data mature enough to accurately evaluate.