Comments for Apdex Exchange

Comment on Apdex-G Section [5] Reporting by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:01:32 +0000

I added Notes 1,2 to Tables 2,3 addressing the need to avoid using commas within the fields of a CSV format file.

Comment on Apdex Specification Templates by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:29:52 +0000

I have updated Table 1 to reflect the second drafts of Apdex-G, published in these posts: Section [1] Introduction Section [2] Index Overview Section [3] Calculation Inputs Section [4] Calculating the Index Section [5] Reporting

Comment on Apdex-G Section [2] Index Overview by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:57:59 +0000

I have edited sections [2.3] and [2.4], introducing the terms ‘Measurement Type’ and ‘Measurement Subtype’ to avoid confusion with ‘Measurement Domain’, which was already defined in [2.2].

Comment on Apdex Specification Templates by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:56:00 +0000

I have added a row for Section [1.3] Broader Apdex Goals. This new section in Apdex-G will briefly summarize Alliance goals and point to the Alliance website for more details.

Comment on Generalizing the Apdex Thresholds by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:59:13 +0000

I edited the definitions of ‘Performance Interval Name’ and ‘Threshold Name’, simplifying the wording and referring to ‘Tools’, the definition of which I also included (unchanged) from the current spec, for reference.

Comment on An Extensible Apdex Glossary by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:41:54 +0000

I merged in all the new definitions from my post on Generalizing the Apdex Thresholds. Doing this replaced some existing definitions that were based on "response time" concepts. Many others, however, remain. Since this Glossary is a work in progress, this kind of inconsistency is to be expected. But to clarify things a little, I will add the notation '[Apdex-R]' to any glossary entries that are obviously inconsistent with Apdex-G.

Comment on Apdex Specification Templates by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:57:32 +0000

I revised the notation in the Type column, numbered the Explanatory Notes, added numbered references to the notes in Table 1, and added Note [6].

Comment on Separately Configurable Thresholds in Apdex-G by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:51:16 +0000

I revised the section titles, changing [2.5] from ‘Apdex Performance Zones’ to ‘Performance Zones’, and [2.5.2] from ‘Alternative Zone Alignments’ to ‘Zone Alignments’. In both cases, the adjectives were superfluous. Everything in the spec is about Apdex, and section [2.5.2] should discuss all possible zone alignments.

Comment on Apdex as a (Key) Performance Indicator by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:38:18 +0000

Since first publishing this, I have corrected my assessment of David Parmenter’s first proposed KPI characteristic (”Prescriptive”) from “POTENTIALLY” to “NO”, for the reasons I gave in Note 7. It should have read “NO” from the outset. In the discussion of this topic, I also noted that Wayne Eckerson advances a similar proposal in his characteristic #6.

I have also added the last row in Table 1, and the explanatory note 8. If an Apdex index is to serve as a KPI, then I agree with David Parmenter that the data being reported by that KPI must be recent enough to permit remedial action to be taken when the index reveals a problem. In general, the Apdex specification should not mandate the timeliness of the data in an Apdex report group, because many management scenarios involve summarizing historic data, for trending or comparative analysis. But if we publish Apdex usage guidelines, it would be appropriate to discuss this point.

Comment on Metrics and Performance Indicators: A Bibliography by Chris Loosley

Chris Loosley — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 06:49:16 +0000

Executive Dashboards For an introduction to executive dashboard design, two online discussions begun in 2003 are still worth reading today. Alex Kirtland provides a useful primer on dashboard purposes, usage, design and implementation. On information design and visualization, he writes: For an information architect ... this is the most exciting challenge: Organizing data in a way that is meaningful for the user, as opposed to reflecting how the systems collect and manage data. It is the essential Tufte challenge: how to take massive amounts of data and clearly tell the story inherent within it. He is, of course, referring to Edward Tufte, the renowned author and expert in the visual communication of information. Tufte's site contains a long-running thread on executive dashboards. Spanning more than 6 years, this wide-ranging discussion is a nice complement to Kirtland's more prescriptive content. Reader contributions cover dashboard motivations, information design, the politics of dashboard implementation, and more. There seems to be broad agreement that "Dashboard" is a lame metaphor, but also that we're stuck with it anyway, because it's simple and easily grasped.

KIRT03: Executive Dashboards, Alex Kirtland, 2003-2008. [Article and discussion thread on "Boxes and Arrows"]

TUFT03: Executive Dashboards, Edward Tufte and others, 2003-2009. [Discussion thread on "Ask E.T."]