Unbalanced Processing

This smell occurs when processing cannot make use of available processors, the slowest filter in a “pipe and filter” architecture causes the system to have unacceptable throughput, or when extensive processing in general impedes overall response time.

Solution: 1) Restructure software or change scheduling algorithms to enable concurrent execution. 2) Break large filters into more stages and combine very small ones to reduce overhead. 3) Move extensive processing so that it doesn’t impede high traffic or more important work.

Reference

Smith, C. U., & Williams, L. G. (2003). More new software performance antipatterns: Even more ways to shoot yourself in the foot. Computer Measurement Group Conference.