Commentary - The Role of Performance Metrics for Parallel Mathematical Programming Algorithms

Parallel computing adds an extra dimension of complexity to the design of mathematical programming algorithms. This complexity complicates the comparison of algorithms and introduces an additional set of performance metrics. The paper by Barr and Hickman (BH) is well written as they have knitted together expert opinion and their own experience into a reasonable set of guidelines for avoiding the pitfalls that arise in the use of these metrics. BH motivate the guidelines with an insightful summary of fundamental parallel computer issues and how they relate to measuring algorithm effectiveness. Below we expand on those comments of BH which we have found especially relevant. INFORMS Journal on Computing, ISSN 1091-9856, was published as ORSA Journal on Computing from 1989 to 1995 under ISSN 0899-1499.