Performance By Design: The Systematic Selection, Design, and Development of Performance Technologies that Produce Useful Results

Chapter 1

What is Performance, and

why do we have to design for it?

Throughout this book, our attention will center on the selection,

design, and development of systems that lead directly to the

accomplishment of desired and useful performance. While each of

us can typically envision performance, more often than not we can

only define it based on what we know it is not, or we simply rely on

the adage we know it when we see it. But since performance is

central in any discussion of performance improvement, we cannot

afford to start out with the assumption that everyone has the same

operational definition of performance.

The use, misuse, and confusion of terms in our professional

language are often a significant impairment to the accomplishment ...