Apdex Index Examined

This month's edition of the CMG MeasureIT open-access journal has 2 articles on the Apdex Performance Index:

1. "The Apdex Index Revealed", by yours truly
   
2. "The Apdex Index vs Traditional Management Information Decision Tools", by Jim Brady
   

Jim's article compares the Apdex Index with other well-established management decision techniques; especially those based on statistical methods. As someone with a background in Operations Research, Jim is well placed to make these assessments. It's worth noting that Jim's paper arose out of PARS discussion he and I had at CMG'08 in Las Vegas. PARS stands for Performance Analysts' Relaxation Session (a play on mainframe LPARS) but most CMG-ers just think of it as a "free" food and booze session. ;-) I was relating to Jim that I had attended a couple of CMG presentations which tried to explain the deeper significance of the Apdex Index definitions and there were a few things that really bothered me. I thought he might be able to explain it to me in terms of mathematical statistics. We didn't resolve anything that night (what can you expect with all that booze around?), so I left it with him as homework. His paper is the outcome. You'll have to read my article to find out what was bothering me. :-)