Last updated on Apr 8, 2024

You’re trying to optimize application performance. How can you apply logical reasoning to achieve your goal?

Application performance is a crucial factor for delivering a satisfying user experience, maintaining a competitive edge, and reducing costs. However, optimizing performance can be a challenging task that requires careful analysis, testing, and debugging. How can you apply logical reasoning to achieve your goal? Here are some tips to help you use logic to improve your application performance.

1 Identify the problem

Before you can optimize your application performance, you need to identify the problem you are trying to solve. What are the symptoms of poor performance? How do they affect your users and your business? How can you measure and quantify them? You can use various tools and methods to monitor and diagnose performance issues, such as logs, metrics, benchmarks, profilers, and load tests. These can help you gather data and evidence to support your logical reasoning.

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ShreeHarsha Gudal Neelakantachar

🚀 CEO @DataVentureX | Big Data Architect | Cloud Infrastructure Specialist | Performance Engineer | R&D Leader | DevOps Expert | Data Pipeline Innovator | Strategic Planner | Tech Enthusiast | Team Leader
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Identifying the performance issue or the layer where it is seen either in the software or hardware stack is the key. Defining the KPIs or performance metrics as per SLAs validates chasing the right assumptions and postulations. Ideally we use A/B testing to try different configurations and performance scenarios to evaluate the KPIs performance definition by observability. Followed by performance analysis of collected profiling data , logs, benchmarks results. Hypothesis , validation and benchmarking at various levels with macro and micro benchmarks helps identify subcomponent level performance issues contributing to root cause of overall application performance issues. In summary, I would suggest A/B testing and hypothesis tests.

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Sudheer Polavarapu

Enterprise and Solution Architect | Helping clients adopt Cloud and Gen AI. Modernising and transforming enterprises | Multi industry expertise | Believes in sophisticated simplicity
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There is no doubt that Identifying the problem is the key first step. But prematurely concluding the problem without taking a holistic view can be a problem. Quite often we will be working to clear the symptoms rather than the core problem. For example the problem of inconsistent data in an application may not be with the application itself, but may be with the data that is not having a single source of truth.

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2 Define the goal

Once you have identified the problem, you need to define the goal you are trying to achieve. What are the expected outcomes of optimizing your application performance? How will they benefit your users and your business? How can you evaluate and verify them? You can use SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to set realistic and clear goals for your performance optimization. These can help you focus your logical reasoning and avoid unnecessary or unrealistic changes.

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Sudheer Polavarapu

Enterprise and Solution Architect | Helping clients adopt Cloud and Gen AI. Modernising and transforming enterprises | Multi industry expertise | Believes in sophisticated simplicity
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Defining a goal that is good enough to address the current business needs is the immediate next step, instead of trying to make the perfect solution. Addressing further technical evolution needs can be taken as part of technical debt.

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3 Analyze the causes

After you have defined the goal, you need to analyze the causes of the problem. What are the factors that contribute to poor performance? How do they interact and influence each other? How can you isolate and test them? You can use various techniques and frameworks to analyze the causes of performance issues, such as root cause analysis, Pareto analysis, fishbone diagrams, and hypothesis testing. These can help you identify and prioritize the most critical and actionable causes for your logical reasoning.

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Sudheer Polavarapu

Enterprise and Solution Architect | Helping clients adopt Cloud and Gen AI. Modernising and transforming enterprises | Multi industry expertise | Believes in sophisticated simplicity
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One should not stop at symptoms. Can apply 5 whys method to go to the root cause of the problem to pass through the layers and symptoms.

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4 Implement the solutions

Once you have analyzed the causes, you need to implement the solutions. What are the possible ways to address the causes of poor performance? How do they compare and contrast in terms of effectiveness, feasibility, and cost? How can you implement and deploy them safely and efficiently? You can use various strategies and best practices to implement performance optimization solutions, such as refactoring, caching, parallelization, compression, and indexing. These can help you apply and test your logical reasoning in practice.

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5 Evaluate the results

After you have implemented the solutions, you need to evaluate the results. What are the actual outcomes of optimizing your application performance? How do they match or differ from your expected outcomes? How can you measure and validate them? You can use various tools and methods to evaluate and compare performance results, such as logs, metrics, benchmarks, profilers, and load tests. These can help you verify and refine your logical reasoning based on feedback and data.

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6 Learn and improve

Finally, after you have evaluated the results, you need to learn and improve. What are the lessons learned from optimizing your application performance? How can you apply them to future projects or problems? How can you share and document them for others to benefit from? You can use various processes and models to learn and improve from your performance optimization experience, such as retrospectives, post-mortems, continuous improvement, and knowledge management. These can help you enhance and expand your logical reasoning skills and knowledge.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Sudheer Polavarapu

Enterprise and Solution Architect | Helping clients adopt Cloud and Gen AI. Modernising and transforming enterprises | Multi industry expertise | Believes in sophisticated simplicity
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In an integrated nature of the application, at times the problem might be outside the application. In a distributed application one cannot optimise in all fronts. The CAP theorem holds good in this context.

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You’re trying to optimize application performance. How can you apply logical reasoning to achieve your goal?

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1 Identify the problem

2 Define the goal

3 Analyze the causes

4 Implement the solutions

5 Evaluate the results

6 Learn and improve

7 Here’s what else to consider

Application Development

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