Based on the framework of BSP, aHierarchical Bulk Synchronous Parallel (HBSP) performance model isintroduced in this paper to capture the performance optimizationproblem for various stages in parallel program development and toaccurately predict the performance of a parallel program byconsidering factors causing variance at local computation and globalcommunication. The related methodology has been applied to several realapplications and the results show that HBSP is a suitable model foroptimizing parallel programs.