Software Performance Engineering for Object-Oriented Systems: A Use Case Approach

Many object-oriented systems fail to meet performance objectives when they are initially constructed. These performance failures result in damaged customer relations, lost productivity for users, lost revenue, cost overruns due to tuning or redesign, and missed market windows. Most performance failures are due to a lack of consideration of performance issues early in the development process. However, early consideration of performance in object-oriented systems is straightforward. The Use Case scenarios produced by developers during analysis and design serve as a starting point for performance analysis. This paper describes a systematic approach to the performance engineering of object-oriented systems based on Use Case scenarios. This approach is cost-effective and has a low impact on the software development process. A simple case study illustrates the process.