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The June 30, 2010 Apdex webinar material is available. Download the presentation here. It is difficult to choose an APM tool that really helps your enterprise manage application performance. With more than 30 application performance management (APM) tool vendors with scores of product offerings, buyers face hundreds of confusing choices. This confusion is compounded [...] I’m writing a series of posts about Generalizing Apdex. This is #7. To minimize confusion, section numbers in the current spec are accompanied by the section symbol, like this: §1. The corresponding section numbers in the generalized spec, Apdex-G, are enclosed in square brackets, like this: [1]. In my previous post, I reviewed the Apdex specification systematically, asking Which Apdex Features Can Be Generalized? That exercise showed that creating a general version of the spec involves more than generalizing the rules for implementing the features of Apdex; the language describing those features must be generalized too. The current spec is grounded in a conceptual model of a specific measurement domain. Its language refers to users of an application being productive based on the responsiveness of a human-computer interface. We encounter this as soon as we begin reading Section §1, shown in the left-hand column below. In the new generalized specification documents, that terminology belongs in the domain-specific addendum, Apdex-R, which will deal with how to apply the Apdex method to response time measurements. In Apdex-G we need abstract language describing only the properties of a metric. If more concrete language is needed to clarify an explanation, if must appear in an illustrative example. The only exception is text in Apdex-G describing the origins of Apdex. I’m writing a series of posts about Generalizing Apdex. This is #5.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.” – Through the Looking Glass, Chapter VI, Lewis Carroll Specifications need to be precise. Therefore, to create a more general version of the Apdex spec–and before that, to discuss what the spec should contain–we need to define our terminology precisely. This is especially vital in the “Looking Glass” world of information technology, where people like to make words mean so many different things. This post is my attempt to master the meanings of the words I need to use, to make them mean just what I choose them to mean — neither more nor less. The solution, of course, is to create a glossary. The Apdex spec already contains one, in Section 7, but since we’re working on generalizing the spec, we need to generalize the glossary too. At this stage in the process, I can’t predict all the additional terms we’re going to need, but I can already see some obvious omissions in the current glossary. So I’m going to post an extensible glossary here, and update it whenever necessary. That way, by the time we complete the process of rewriting the spec, we’ll have the new glossary for that spec already written. |
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