50 • Catherine Powell If we do A, then we do not get the benefit of doing B and vice versa. Put another way, the opportunity cost of doing A is the benefit we would have gotten if we had done B. Because we ran a throughput test (option A), we learned how...
More
50 • Catherine Powell If we do A, then we do not get the benefit of doing B and vice versa. Put another way, the opportunity cost of doing A is the benefit we would have gotten if we had done B. Because we ran a throughput test (option A), we learned how fast one user could use the system. Because we ran a through- put test (option A), we did not learn how many people could log in—and this is opportunity cost. 4.3 Why Measure Opportunity Cost? We measure opportunity cost because resources are not infinite. There is never enough time, machines, or people to do every test we would like. Measuring opportunity cost helps us make the best choices given the lim- its that exist in the real world. 4.4 Opportunity Cost Applied Let’s take an example application. It’s a Web application that lets us log in, order pizza, see what pizza our friends ordered, and upload pictures of pizza we’ve eaten. We expect it to be very popular. Of course, if it’s going to be popular, our pizza application shou
Less
