Abstract: A system, method and computer program product for tuning the performance of a software system. A generation of genomes is created that each represents a set of unique tunable parameter values (genes) associated with the software system. The software system is selectively configured with the genomes and executed to produce a score. Genomes that have produced meritorious scores are combined to serve as parent genomes for the creation of a next generation of child genomes having genes selected from each parent genome. The execution, scoring and parent selection cycle repeats for each new generation until performance tuning has completed.