Fix performance issues
Performance issues can affect user satisfaction, productivity, and costs. To fix them, you need to understand what causes them and how to optimize your solution.
In this article, you'll learn how to:
- Find the root causes of performance issues
- Test your customizations for performance issues
- Make changes with caution
Find the root causes of performance issues
Don't jump to conclusions or look for quick fixes when you face a performance issue. Instead, take the time to investigate the issue in detail and find the root cause. This will help you avoid making changes that might make things worse or introduce new problems.
To find the root cause of a performance issue, you should:
Set realistic expectations. Don't expect a single cause or a single fix. Performance issues often result from many factors working together. You might need to make several small improvements over time.
Use your knowledge. Performance issues can be complex and difficult to solve. You need to have enough knowledge of your solution and its components to ask the right questions and analyze the issue.
Transfer your knowledge. Performance issues can happen after you deploy your solution or after your warranty period ends. You need to share your knowledge with other teams who will maintain or support your solution.
Test your customizations for performance issues
One of the most common sources of performance issues is customization. To test whether a customization is causing a performance issue, you should:
Many customizations can be turned on or off. You can try turning off some customizations and see if the issue goes away or gets better. If it does, you can narrow down which customization is causing the issue.
Test one customization at a time. Don't test multiple customizations together. You might get mixed results and not know which customization is affecting performance. Test each customization separately and measure the effect on performance.
Make changes with caution
When you find the root cause of a performance issue, you need to make some changes to optimize your solution. But you need to be careful not to introduce new issues or break something else.
To make changes with caution, you should:
Look for cheap wins. Cheap wins are changes that are easy to make and have low risk of causing problems. They might not have a big impact on performance, but they can add up over time. For example, you might reduce the amount of data that you retrieve or display in your solution.
Make one change at a time. Don't make multiple changes at once. You might not know which change is improving or worsening performance. Make one change at a time and test the result before making another change.
Document your changes. Keep track of what changes you make and why. This will help you compare your results and undo any changes that don't work.
Next steps
- Explore the product-specific guidance for performance optimizations for different Microsoft products and services
- Request a FastTrack performance workshop to get expert help and guidance on your solution performance
- Use the checklist: Performance focus to review your solution design and implementation for performance considerations
- Read the case study of how a customer improved their solution performance with FastTrack support