System performance is the amount of useful work done by a system - measured in production speed of products of a predefined quality. System performance often brings the competitive advantage for high-tech Cyber-Physical Systems. To meet market demands for product quality, product customization, and total cost of ownership per product, systems need to meet ever more ambitious performance targets relating to system productivity.

Performance is a cross-cutting system-level concern, with intricate relations to other system-level concerns like product quality, cost, reliability, security, and customizability. Designing for performance implies that system performance is a first-class citizen integrally taken into account during the full system life cycle.