Professional SQL Server® 2005 Performance Tuning

14.6. Summary

In this chapter, you looked at how to integrate issues of performance early into the design process by asking questions about the performance requirements of the application and database environment. By understanding the nature of the user roles and use cases that will be performed, you can make some general design decisions based on solid, best practices. Recording metrics to benchmark performance metrics throughout the testing and quality assurance processes allows you to be proactive and see issues before you are in production. Some adjustments can be made after systems are in production, but they are usually minor. The major changes that can be made occur in the design phases of project. If you can implement a proactive benchmarking methodology, you'll be able to bring these items up before you'll have to deal with them in production environments. Remember that performance problems can be real database-level resource issues, or they can simply be perceptions of speed. Combine your knowledge of database performance problems to communicate back to user groups both in technical terms and in the language that they understand. Before you turn on the switch to production, follow along in Chapter 17 for more guidance in communicating your performance tuning and more political issues.