Summary
In this chapter, we made the connection and discussed performance tuning as a science. We defined performance as measures and listed some of the most important ones used in IT—response time, throughput, and utilization efficiency.
We learned that the performance-tuning process is highly iterative, and that it is vital to only tune one thing at a time between tests. Here, we also specified the main place of the tuning process within the software development process and listed some common tuning anti-patterns.
Good quality test data and production-like environments are fundamental cornerstones of testing in general and for performance testing, this is no exception; it's quite the opposite!
After going through metrics and their inherent value made available during the life cycle of a piece of software, we finally talked about the tuning possibilities available in all the layers of a complete enterprise stack. This is a stack that encompasses many software layers (such as an application or system, the middleware, and the operating system) as well as hardware and network equipment.
To put the theories of this chapter into practice, we will need a powerful set of supporting tools. Moving on, this is exactly what we will be looking at in the next chapter.
