Acknowledgments

Many people assisted me in writing the book you now have in your hands. I'm extremely grateful to all of them. Without their assistance, this piece of work wouldn't have seen the light of the day. While sharing with you the brief history of TOP (Troubleshooting Oracle Performance), let me thank the people who made it all possible.

Even though I didn't realize it at the time, this story began on July 16, 2004, the day of the kickoff meeting I had organized for a new seminar, Oracle Optimization Solutions, which I had planned to write with some colleagues of mine at Trivadis. During the meeting, we discussed the objectives and the structure of the seminar. Many of the ideas developed that day and while writing the seminar in the following months have been reused in this book. Big thanks to Arturo Guadagnin, Dominique Duay, and Peter Welker for their collaboration back then. Together, we wrote what, I'm convinced to this day, was an excellent seminar. In addition to them, I also have to thank Guido Schmutz. He participated in the kickoff meeting only but strongly influ....