Efficient determination of processing termination at barrier synchronization points can occupy an important role in the overall throughput of parallel and distributed computing systems. Even though relatively efficient termination detection techniques have been proposed for certain environments, no effective performance analysis methodology has been introduced to determine application attributes that favor the use of a particular termination detection technique. This fact has hindered the adoption and development of termination detection schemes. This paper addresses this problem by developing a communication pattern based methodology to improve the precision of the theoretical performance of termination detection techniques in lieu of laborious experiments or potentially subjective benchmarking studies. By measuring message complexity from the idle period respect, it provides a simple and effective way to evaluate existing termination detection techniques or design new termination detection algorithms.