Proceedings of IEEE IC-BNMT2013 A NETWORK PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT TOOL Oktay SIMSEK, Marco POSPIECH Technical University Freiberg, Chair of Information Systems, Freiberg 09596, Germany simsek.oktay@student.tu-freiberg.de, marco.pospiech@bwl.tu-freiberg.de Abstract: Quality is the most important element of customer satisfaction however the achievement in software industry faces various issues. Applications may behave dissimilar in different environments. Network performance causes the most important quality problems for network required applications. Network performance management supports the handling of network related problems and ensures an optimum network speed, reliability and capacity for all applications users. In this paper network performance management is discussed and the most important network performance measures are defined. Based on the design science paradigm, a tool that enables network performance measurement is developed. Without network performance data it is impossible to analyze and manage network performance. The tool helps application users to measure their performance and help organization to manage network performance. Keywords: Network performance; Management; Cloud computing; Tool; Service; SAP 1 Introduction Nowadays, more and more applications are based on network technologies [1]. Here, cloud computing went into the focus. Related applications and resources were removed from portable desktop into large cloud computing centers, which is delivered as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), to provide all kinds of services on-demand[2-3]. These technologies brought new quality aspects for network based applications. Developing high quality products must perform efficiently on client side as well. Network performance has one of the most significant impacts on such applications and causes important quality problems [4]. Thus, the management of network performance (NPM) went into research focus. In fact, many organizations neglect the network effect on these applications since the management of all user network performances remains to complex [5]. This is mostly resulted by missing tool support to measure customer network performances, obtain required data and analyze whether their application can perform well on client side [6]. A product can perform dissimilar on different environments. The most obvious impact is the access time from user to application over the Internet or WAN [7]. Insufficient application performance causes customer dissatisfaction and a significant loss of money. Thereby, performance issues can be recognized, analyzed and addressed. Analyzing user network performance may make the difference between a critical failure and a successful deployment. Improving testing methodologies and tools can have a vital impact on customer satisfaction and on organizations revenues. Thus, it is the papers goal to develop a network performance measurement tool to solve the stated issues. Based on the stated goal the papers concourse is as follows: Section 2 discusses the design science paradigm as applied research design to solve network related problems. Section 3 discusses NPM and measures as solution of the determined problems. Section 4 shows the concept development based on demanded solution. Section 5 illustrates a prototype for network performance measurement in SAP. The paper is summarized in Section 6. Implications and further research are highlighted. 2 Design science Design-science is basically a problem solving paradigm [8]. It searches for creating innovations which describe the practices, ideas, technical capabilities, and products through which the analysis, design, implementation, management, and use of information systems can be effectively and efficiently accomplished. Here, it assists the research process in order to improve the quality and rigor [8-10]. The result of Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) is a process model containing six activities in a nominal sequence which is shown in Figure 1 [10]. Figure 1 DSRM process model [11] As already stated, the problem belongs to missing measurement opportunists to guarantee software quality. In this context, NPM represents a possible concept to measure, model, plan, and optimize the network. To allow thus, a network performance measurement tool must be created. Based on existing NPM literature and customer requirements the underlying concept was designed. In iterative cycles the tools were developed until all ____________________________________ 978-1-4799-0094-7/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE