Solving or planning for performance issues is a core part of the database
professional's toolkit. The Oracle database is very flexible, making it suitable
for a wide range of applications. Consequently, it is highly tunable, presenting
a bewildering set of choices to the inexperienced. Tuning Oracle is as much
about approach as about understanding the technology. It is more than tweaking
parameters or following a set prescriptionit involves matching
application-specific knowledge with what's happening inside the database.
Based on author Christopher Lawson's long experience working with Oracle, "The
Art and Science of Oracle Performance Tuning" book uses a five-step model to
help identify and isolate the cause