* The Application Performance Index
A consortium of companies called the Apdex Alliance is developing the Application Performance Index to specify a uniform way to measure and report on the user experience.
Apdex interprets app measurements
By Peter Sevcik
Current application performance-measurement tools have several limitations. Each has its own definition of performance, produces too many confusing or conflicting numbers, and lacks a simple summary result. IT managers have no insight into the performance that matters – users’ experience with mission-critical applications.
A consortium of companies called the Apdex Alliance is developing the Application Performance Index (Apdex) to specify a uniform way to measure and report on the user experience. Apdex is a numerical measure of user satisfaction with the performance of enterprise applications. The metric gauges the effectiveness of IT investments, and helps CIOs and other executives understand whether their applications are delivering on promises or just operating.
Implemented as a reporting window for current products, Apdex converts application response time measurements from many tools and services into a single number using a scale of 0-to-1 (0 equals no users satisfied, 1 equals all users satisfied).
Task response time is defined as the elapsed time between when a user does something (mouse click, enter, return) and when the system (client, network, servers) responds so that a user can proceed with the process. These waiting periods define the “responsiveness” of the application. The index is based on three zones of application responsiveness.
To find out what the three zones of application responsiveness are, please go to: http://www.networkworld.com/news/tech/2005/062705techupdate.html
