One users activities in the system will not adversely impact others in the same instance

Description

This requirement pertains to both performance and data integrity of the system. When a user is accessing reports, entering data, or otherwise using the system in a day-to-day manner, their usage should not cause speed or data issues with other users who are accessing the tool simultaneously.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A mid-sized enterprise uses CPM software to manage financial data across multiple departments. An analyst in the sales department is running a large, complex report, while multiple other employees are simultaneously trying to access the system for data entry and viewing real-time reports.

Solution: The CPM software is built with scalability and multi-user capabilities in mind, ensuring that the complex report run by the analyst does not slow down or interfere with other users' activities. The system is also robust enough to avoid any data corruption or mix-ups during simultaneous access.

Considerations

It is a myth that the shift to elastic cloud platforms like GCP, AWS, Azure, Digital Ocean, OCI and so on has magically solved scalability problems with business software. Those problems may have been lessened, but they certainly still exist when doing something complex. Big CPM reports are no exception to this, as some will slow down when calculating complex outputs that involve a lot of data, dimensions, and concurrent users.

If you are purchasing a CPM tool for 5 users, it is unlikely that the product you're evaluating will struggle. We say “unlikely” as there are exceptions. If you have a complex report, pass it by the vendor to confirm it can be rendered in the system on a reasonable timetable. Reasonable to us means less than 10 seconds.

When looking at 100 users who are very active, you may run into slowness depending on the architecture of the product. Explain your use case to the vendor and confirm, in writing, that they are comfortable with their products capabilities.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Concurrent Users: Can activities of one user, such as running large or complex reports, impact the performance for other users in the same instance?
• User Counts: What changes in the system are recommended to mitigate system slowdowns with our large user counts?