Tuning — strategy and knowledge

Another whole book could be written on tuning alone, so what we present here is just a sample of what needs to be done. The key takeaway lesson is to apply a proven and validated methodology to any endeavor — discipline and repeatability on how to identify, isolate, and tune bottlenecks. Even though tuning is a highly technical endeavor, it needs to be supported by a repeatable strategy and specialized knowledge in the many areas a portal application can touch. So, there is a process around tuning that goes along with the monitoring, test, and change management processes. In terms of how soon to start tuning is a matter of how the overall development and testing strategies tackle it. Traditionally, it is in the performance test or staging environments that testing and tuning exercises are executed and then applied to production. There are other possible test-driven methodologies that force tuning to occur much earlier in the lifecycle.

Regardless of how soon...