I know that SQL Server 2005 lets me choose forced parameterization and use plan guides to change individual query behavior. How do I decide when to use these features?

Customers and colleagues who know me well can predict that my initial answer to almost any performance-tuning question is,"It depends," and this question is no different. I can't give you a comprehensive list of when, where, and how to override the query optimizer. But here are some examples of when to use forced parameterization for an entire database or force the optimizer to choose a particular query plan.

I'll s...