We study, by means of simulations, the performance of the Shewhart method, the Cusum method, the Shiryaev-Roberts method and the likelihood ratio method in the case when the true shift differs from the shift for which the methods are optimal. The methods are compared for a fixed expected time until false alarm. The comparisons are made with respect to some measures associated with power such as probability of alarm when the change occurs immediately, expected delay of true alarm and predictive value of an alarm. Copyright © 2000 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.