A framework for characterization and analysis of software system scalability

Abstract

The term scalability appears frequently in computing literature, but it is a term that is poorly defined and poorly understood. The lack of a clear, consistent and systematic treatment of scalability makes it difficult to evaluate claims of scalability and to compare claims from different sources. This paper presents a framework for precisely characterizing and analyzing the scalability of a software system. The framework treats scalability as a multi-criteria optimization problem and captures the dependency relationships that underlie typical notions of scalability. The paper presents the results of a case study in which the framework and analysis method were applied to a real-world system, demonstrating that it is possible to develop a precise, systematic characterization of scalability and to use the characterization to compare the scalability of alternative system designs.