Db2 Application Development for Performance: Be Early and Be Informed

The title of this blog post is also the title of one of my two IDUG Db2 Tech Conference presentations in Philadelphia this year. I chose this topic because I am in the process of writing a book on Db2 performance from a developer perspective.

There are a lot of performance-focused presentations but most of them are from the perspective of monitoring and tuning. In other words, they are about looking for and fixing problems in code that already exists. Now there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is necessary. Even if everything is written correctly from the get-go (right, sure it is) over time things will change and performance will decline. So we need tools to ferret out what is going wrong and help us to fix it. This is mostly the domain of the DBA to do.

From the programmer's point-of-view, though, it seems that things are lacking. I frequently see SQL and program code that seems to have been written by someone with no understanding of relational basics. This has to change.

That is the reason for my IDUG presentation... and also for the book. The idea is to give advice and direction to Db2 application developers and programmers on writing efficient, well-performing programs. If you write code and access data in a Db2 database, then this book and presentation should be helpful to you.

The material is written for all Db2 professionals. It will be useful for users of Db2 for Linux, Unix and Windows as well as for users of Db2 for z/OS. When there are pertinent differences between the two I point it out. Also, much of the material will apply to any relational database system, not just Db2; nevertheless, the book is written and intended for Db2 users.

I don't try to teach basic programming skills, other than, of course, some guidance on SQL. And even that is not basic. I assume you can figure out a basic Select, Insert, Update or Delete... and even some more complex stuff like joins. The focus of the book is on programming, coding and developing applications.

If you are a DBA, most of the material will still be of interest to you because DBAs are responsible for overall Db2 performance. Therefore, it makes sense to understand the programming aspect of performance. That said, I will not be covering DBA and system administration level performance. But if you think the material is worthy, knowing it is there to recommend to your developers (new and old) can be worthwhile!

The book and presentation focus on guidance regarding application development procedures, techniques, and philosophies. The goal is to educate developers on how to write good application code that lends itself to optimal performance. Of course, this does not mean that every program you write will perform at top speed. But it should enable you to write code that does not require remedial after-the-fact modifications by performance analysts. If you follow the guidelines I outline in this book and presentation, I can say with confidence that your DBAs and performance analysts will love you!

So if you are going to IDUG in Philadelphia this year, be sure to attend my presentation. Be sure to say "Howdy!" and that this blog post guided you to the presentation... and also, keep an eye on my web site, Mullins Consulting, Inc., for information about the book when it gets published, hopefully later in 2018.