Developing software performance with the performance refinement and evolution model

Abstract

Performance is an important attribute of a software system. To develop a software system of acceptable performance, the team needs to specify precise performance requirements, design appropriate test cases, and use suitable techniques to analyze the performance characteristics. However, the lack of a structured framework for performance engineering may impair the effectiveness of the techniques. We propose the Performance Refinement and Evolution Model (PREM) as a performance management framework. Based on the specification of quantitative measurement and workloads, PREM classifies performance requirements specification, analysis activities, and testing into four levels. In this paper, we provide an overview of this model.