So to define response time you must first define "response?" For acceptance criteria I guess the user has to be specific about what a response is, e.g., when a web app returns a database large result set to a web page, if you have to wait until they entire result set is transmitted to the client the response time would "appear" to be slower than if you just displayed the rows as they were transmitted.
Also, if we are to really address the business case as you suggest then the definition should also include the quality of the response. If the response is quick but incomplete and the user has to ask 10 questions to get at the one real answer he's after then what good is a fast response time? -----Original Message----- Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 12:09 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L I've got Cary's book for about a week now and I have a comment. On page 12 he defines response time as "The elapsed time between the end of an inquiry or demand on a computer system and the beginning of a response; for example, the length of the time between an indication of the end of an inquiry and the display of the first character of the response at a user terminal." I know from the reference provided that he did not create that definition himself. Do you agree with it? I don't. I believe that "it depends" and that there are cases where the user would define response time as the time from initiating the request until the entire transaction is complete, especially if subsequent work is dependent on the completion. You can easily play the "evil genie" in these cases by "improving" the response time such that the first character shows up sooner, yet the last character shows up much later (in the vein of first_rows vs. all_rows), effectively making things worse for the user. So even the definition of response time comes back to the business case. Sometimes the user can continue with the next task as soon as the first pieces of the request arrive, while at other times she can not until the last pieces are complete. Wolfgang Breitling Oracle7, 8, 8i, 9i OCP DBA Centrex Consulting Corporation http://www.centrexcc.com -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Wolfgang Breitling INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Orr, Steve INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).