SPE Instructors

About the Instructors and Consultants

We work closely with PerfX to bring you an unparalleled combination of expertise and experience in software performance engineering. Dr. Connie U. Smith of Performance Engineering Services and Dr. Lloyd G. Williams of PerfX are world-renowned leaders in the theory and practice of SPE. They are uniquely qualified to teach you how to achieve performance excellence.

A Unique Combination of Expertise and Experience

Together, Drs. Williams and Smith have over 60 years of experience in performance engineering and software development. They are at the vanguard of the development of software performance engineering techniques and tools and are leaders in their application. They have worked together for more than 20 years to help clients solve software performance problems. They have published numerous technical papers and articles, and are the authors of Performance Solutions: A Practical Guide to Creating Responsive, Scalable Software, published by Addison-Wesley.

Dr. Connie U. Smith

Dr. Smith, a principal consultant of the Performance Engineering Services Division of L&S Computer Technology, Inc., is known for her work in defining the field of SPE and integrating SPE into the development of new software systems. Dr. Smith received the Computer Measurement Group's prestigious AA Michelson Award for technical excellence and professional contributions for her SPE work. She also authored the original SPE book: Performance Engineering of Software Systems, published in 1990 by Addison-Wesley, and approximately 100 scientific papers. She is the creator of the SPE·ED™ performance engineering tool. She has over 25 years of experience in the practice, teaching, research and development of the SPE performance prediction techniques.

View Additional Background Information

Dr. Smith first proposed the term software performance engineering in an award-winning 1981 paper. She was the founding Conference Chair of the International Workshop on Software and Performance (WOSP) in 1998, and has been a Program Committee member of all subsequent conferences.

She is a past ACM National Lecturer, served 8 years as an officer of ACM SIGMETRICS, and is an active member of the Computer Measurement Group, having served on the CMG Board of Directors for 4 years. She is listed in Who's Who of American Women and numerous other professional listings.

Dr. Smith received a BA in mathematics from the University of Colorado and MA and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Recent Publications

Conference Presentations

Dr. Lloyd G. Williams

Dr. Williams is a principal consultant at PerfX, where he specializes in the development and evaluation of software architectures to meet quality objectives, including performance, reliability, modifiability, and reusability. His experience includes work on systems in fields such as process control, avionics, telecommunications, electronic funds transfer, Web-based systems, software development tools and environments, and medical instrumentation. Dr. Williams has been a pioneer in the application of Software Performance Engineering (SPE) to object-oriented systems. He is the author of numerous technical papers and has presented professional development seminars and consulted on software development for more than 100 organizations worldwide.

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