Performance analysis methodology
Analyzing an application's performance problem is basically a case of identifying where the majority of the time for a particular task to complete is being spent, and measuring/comparing that time to what is normal and/or acceptable for that type of task.
Top five reasons for poor application performance
Generally speaking, performance issues can be attributed to one of the following five areas, in order of decreasing likelihood:
Server processing time delay
Application turns delay
Network path latency
Bandwidth congestion
Data transport (TCP) issues
Client processing time is usually a relatively small component of overall response time—except perhaps for some compute-extensive desktop applications, which leaves the focus on the network and server environments and any performance-affecting application design characteristics.
Preparing the tools and approach
As was done when preparing to troubleshoot a connectivity or functionality problem, you'll need to gather the...