One of the most important skills needed when investigating badly performing SQL is the ability to read Execution Plans. It’s a topic I’ve written and spoken about frequently – even to the extent of doing full-day seminars – but there’s always scope for finding another way of presenting the method.
This is a note based on a few introductory Powerpoint slides I created for the (sadly cancelled) Polish OUG Workshop and Tanel Poder’s Virtual Conference taking a slightly different approach from one I normally use to get people stated on interpreting (serial) execution plans.
I want to begin with a query, rather than a plan: