An approach for modeling and detecting software performance antipatterns based on first-order logics

The problem of interpreting the results of performance analysis is quite critical in the software performance domain. Mean values, variances and probability distributions are hard to interpret for providing feedback to software architects. Instead, what architects expect are solutions to performance problems, possibly in the form of architectural alternatives (e.g. split a software component in two components and re-deploy one of them). In a software performance engineering process, the path from analysis results to software design or implementation alternatives is still based on the skills and experience of analysts. In this paper, we propose an approach for the generation of feedback based on performance antipatterns. In particular, we focus on the representation and detection of antipatterns. To this goal, we model performance antipatterns as logical predicates and we build an engine, based on such predicates, aimed at detecting performance antipatterns in an XML representation of the software system. Finally, we show the approach at work on a case study.