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01/02/2006: "Benchmarking"

One of my tasks was to benchmark AppSwing's AppServer technology. This had two purposes; the first being to improve my familiarity with AppServer, the second intention was have something to measure future improvements against.

I came up with a plan of action and then set about the huge task of benchmarking AppServer version 2.2; by the end of it I had tables and tables of information but making something useful from it all was a larger task than I originally anticipated. Thankfully the marvellous thing that is pivot tables came to the rescue; I had never heard of them before, let alone used them, however they turned out to be a blessing. With them I could mould the data from an amorphous mass into a well structured table that everyone in the company could read and see the relevance of. This all went into a document explaining what I had done, how I did it and what the results were.

Pivot tables did not stop there, using Microsoft Excel I could drag and drop different fields making the table show different information depending on who I needed to tailor it to. Some people reading the report would only want the high level information; where as some of the more technically minded people would want more granular details. With pivot tables I could keep both happy without too much fuss for me.

It has now been a year since I first started at AppSwing and my first major contribution to AppServer's code is nearing completion, time for more benchmarking I think. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good result I go through the process again this time with AppServer version 3.0.....
The results are in, the judges are happy, and I have a big grin on my face. The benchmarking has shown that the "improvements" I have made are actually improvements... phew.

First stages of improvement out of the way, the big and final stage, here I come.