Model-based performance prediction in software development: a survey

TLDR

Performance analysis has largely been omitted from early software development stages, despite its potential to require major design changes, and although several early approaches exist, integration into routine practice remains limited. This paper reviews recent model‑based performance prediction research conducted during software development to evaluate the field’s maturity and highlight promising research directions. The authors perform a comprehensive literature survey of model‑based performance prediction studies carried out at development time, assessing their methods, maturity, and future research needs.

Abstract

Over the last decade, a lot of research has been directed toward integrating performance analysis into the software development process. Traditional software development methods focus on software correctness, introducing performance issues later in the development process. This approach does not take into account the fact that performance problems may require considerable changes in design, for example, at the software architecture level, or even worse at the requirement analysis level. Several approaches were proposed in order to address early software performance analysis. Although some of them have been successfully applied, we are still far from seeing performance analysis integrated into ordinary software development. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of recent research in the field of model-based performance prediction at software development time in order to assess the maturity of the field and point out promising research directions.