Figure 9-12. Shown is the same data as in Figure 9-11, but with slightly less abstraction. Notice I use more traditional words, such as "response time" and "arrival rate," and include numeric values. If you include technical words and numbers, be prepared to explain what they mean and how they relate to the performance situation.

As I'll detail in the next section, using basic query theory math, you can construct a graph similar to Figure 9-11 or Figure 9-12 with only a single peak time 1-hour interval sample (for example, from Statspack or AWR).

To help you get started creating a response-time graph, I created a five-step process. You can use this process regardless of the database server bottleneck and even if you have a single sample or hundreds. Enjoy!