Monitoring and diagnosing complex distributed technical systems

Abstract

Provided is a tool for monitoring a complex technical system having at least one diagnostic user and a plurality of system users, the tool having: a first diagnostic component for a first diagnostic user, the first diagnostic user component comprising: a first communication interface for selectively communicating with multiple system users and having a filter for sorting communications with individual system users into individual conversation streams, wherein individual communications are assigned time stamps; a first communication display interface for selectively displaying an individual conversation stream relating to an individual system user as a continuous sequence wherein the first communication interface portion is arranged to update in response to further communication a first parameter display interface for displaying technical system parameters in a first subset of monitored parameters relating to the individual system user's technical configuration status and usage history; a first parameter configuration interface arranged to permit the first diagnostic user to adjust a first set of adjustable user parameters; technical event identification logic arranged to identify technical events or changes in parameters in a second subset of monitored parameters relevant to an individual system user's interaction with the system; event description logic arranged to generate a textual description for each identified technical event; hybrid conversation logic to insert the generated textual descriptions in sequence into the individual conversation stream based on the technical event time and the timestamps of communications with the individual user.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.