When you're looking at a performance problem in T-SQL for the first time, it's likely that someone suggested you should look at the execution plan for the query. What is an execution plan? How do you get an execution plan. Once you've got one, how on earth do you understand what it's showing you? This session will give you the answers to those questions and more. We'll cover what execution plans are, how you can get them, and how to get started understanding what they're showing you. You'll be ready to get started fixing the performance on your own queries with the knowledge gathered here.