A university hosts a department of archaeology, a department of natural history, and a medical school. The three faculties decided to jointly produce an openly accessible, widely advertised online archive to display documents and images of their holdings, including static medical images of archaeological and zoological artifacts. The system will also contain links to the catalog of the university's library so one can research related holdings. The system will be built by the university's IT department with occasional assistance from the computer science department. Funding will be provided by the national government and private foundations. Quick response times are an explicitly but vaguely stated condition for funding. As a performance engineer, you have been asked to join the team that will design and build this system.
• Identify the stakeholders who have an interest in response time requirements. Explain the possible range of resource requirements and time needed for the delivery of images and captions.
• What kinds of activities should the response times include?
• At what points in the delivery chain does a response time begin and end?
• How will you negotiate response time budgets with the various stakeholders?
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The stakeholders who have an interest in response time requirements include:
1. Users: The users accessing the online archive will expect quick response times to view and interact with the documents and images. This may include researchers, students, faculty, and the general public.
2. IT Department: The IT department responsible for building and maintaining the system will need to ensure that the response times align with the system's performance goals.
3. Computer Science Department: The computer science department, providing occasional assistance, will also have a stake in the response time requirements as the system's design and implementation will involve their expertise.
4. National Government: The government funding the project may have its own expectations regarding the response times, as it would want to ensure effective utilization of the allocated funds.
5. Private Foundations: Private foundations providing funding may also have specific requirements and expectations regarding response times as part of their sponsorship.
The resource requirements and time needed for the delivery of images and captions can vary based on different factors such as image size, network bandwidth, server capabilities, and the number of simultaneous users. It is crucial to conduct performance testing and gather data to determine the specific resource requirements and estimate the time needed for image and caption delivery.
The response times should include activities such as the initial loading of the online archive, searching for specific documents or images, opening document/image pages, zooming in or rotating images, navigating between pages, and accessing linked catalog records from the university library.
Response time begins when a user initiates an action, such as clicking a link or entering a search query. It ends when the requested content is fully loaded and accessible to the user.
To negotiate response time budgets with the stakeholders, the following steps can be taken:
1. Identify the stakeholders' requirements and expectations regarding response times through discussions, meetings, and surveys.
2. Conduct performance testing to evaluate the current system's capabilities and measure response times for different activities.
3. Analyze the performance data and identify areas where response times can be improved or optimized.
4. Propose response time budgets based on the identified improvements and the stakeholders' requirements.
5. Engage in open communication with the stakeholders, explaining the proposed response time budgets, the technical constraints, and ensuring alignment with the project objectives.
6. Collaborate with the IT department and computer science department to implement performance optimizations and monitor response times during the development and maintenance phases.
7. Continuously review and revise response time budgets based on feedback from stakeholders and performance monitoring.