If you scan this book, you will notice a few recurring themes, such as OraPub's 3-circle analysis method, wait-event analysis, response-time analysis, and a solid understanding of Oracle internals. The beauty of these is that each supports the other during diagnosis, analysis, and communication, leading to building an extremely strong solution case and breeding cooperation.

This chapter starts you off by identifying the keys to thriving in the chaotic firefighting environment, and then introduces the main methods covered in this book. This chapter is about creating the initial framework to prepare you for the eventual firefight. Once the framework is complete, you'll be able to quickly absorb a tremendous amount of technical knowledge, which when methodically applied, yields extremely strong solutions.

Most people around you will be frightened. They will be fighting fires with their right hand, while their left hand is updating their resume on Monster.com. They will be frantically trying to figure out which SQL and programs are consuming a lot of resources, what Oracle processes are waiting for, what users are experiencing, and the CPU consumption-all while people are standing behind them asking for constant updates. What you need is a superior method you trust. There is no way you can or would want to look at every statistic. It's just not possible, and the good news is that it's completely unnecessary. With a proven method, you can take one step forward at a time by gathering the minimum amount of necessary information.