TECHNIQUE FOR EVALUATING SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE ONLINE TO SUPPORT ONLINE TUNING

A method for evaluating software performance includes steps of: receiving a plurality of versions of code; selecting starting and stopping points for timing execution of the code versions; dispatching at least two of the plurality of code versions for execution; repeatedly executing the at least two code versions; recording execution times for the at least two code versions, according to the selected starting and stopping points; collecting the execution times; and processing the collected execution times. The method further includes steps of: performing a statistical analysis of the collected execution times for determining which code version is fastest; and invoking a confidence metric periodically to determine if a difference between means is statistically meaningful.