Complete Web Monitoring

How We Use RUM

We’ve already covered why you need to look at end user experience (Chapter 8), but here are some specific uses of RUM technology:

• Using performance records to prove you met service-level targets with customers

• Supporting users and resolving disputes based on a record of what actually happened

• Speeding up problem resolution with “first-cause” analysis to localize the issue

• Helping to configure and verify synthetic tests

• Defining testing scripts from actual user visits

Proving That You Met SLA Targets

When a service provider and its customers argue, it’s usually because they don’t have all the facts. Instead, they resort to anecdotes and recrimination, each providing incomplete evidence to support the view that they’re right and the other is wrong.

This is especially true for SaaS websites. When you’re the service provider, you need to be gentle. If you’re in the wrong, you’ll be issuing a refund and apologizing soon. If the problem is the customer’s fault, you have the opportunity to fix it and help her save face.

You need to know what actually happened, which is where RUM excels. If you have reports on what the end user experience was like, you can tell subscribers precisely where delays occurred.

To make the most of dispute resolution, your RUM solution must segment traffic by the application being used, by subscriber (usually the company that’s paying the bill), and by individual user. It must also generate reports by elements of latency and by type of error. By distributing ...