ABSTRACT
The costs of the computer operations department is, typically, about 60 to 70 per cent of the total expenditure budget for a medium-sized data processing unit. It is in the operations area that many companies waste opportunities to make their whole computing plan cost-effective. A given hardware configuration has certain physical constraints which place limits upon the amount of work which can be run in a given amount of time. However, most general-purpose computers today are capable of controlling and operating several programs at the same time: the larger the configuration, and the more varied the array of peripherals available, the greater is the multiprogramming capability. The chapter demonstrates the complexity of establishing precise standards for performance measurement in the computer operations area. Over a period of time, therefore, a clear picture can be built up of the efficiency of the total operation, and the most consistent factors which affect performance can be diagnosed.
