1. In a computing system whose behavior is affected by at least one parameter, a method for improving behavior of the computing system, comprising the steps of: providing an application which executes on the computing system; invoking the application a plurality of times using different values for at least one parameter to determine how system behavior varies as a function of the at least one parameter, wherein the at least one parameter is a system parameter whose value affects the performance of a plurality of applications executing on the computing system; estimating a system overhead resulting from invoking the application; estimating a system behavior improvement resulting from optimizing the at least one parameter based on invoking the application; and selecting a frequency for invoking the application to optimize the at least one parameter, wherein the frequency is selected based on the system overhead incurred by invoking the application and the system behavior improvement obtained from optimizing the at least one parameter.