9 Instrumentation involves injecting additional code into software to observe specific behavior. It is similar to the gauges and instruments on a car dashboard or my bright-red Honda VFR 800 Interceptor's speedometer-it provides internal functioning information. When the hooks needed to obtain this data are added as the application is built, instrumentation is easy. But most often, little thought is given to instrumentation. Oracle started instrumenting its kernel code with Oracle version 7.

11 The word practice used in conjunction with a medical doctor has always been a little unsettling. Even more personal was when my title at Oracle Corporation was, you guessed it, Practice Manager. As the joke went, Craig's not a real manager-he's just practicing to be one!

12 In 2001, I published the original ORTA paper and presented it at the Computer Measurement Group (CMG) conference in Anaheim, California. Since that time, ORTA has been at the core of all my Oracle-related work.