Client-based system for monitoring the performance of application programs

An applications agent for monitoring the response times of application programs running on a computer, comprising:

• means for observing communications between an application program and an operating system program running on the computer;
• means for detecting the times at which said communications are exchanged between the application program and the operating system program;
• means for calculating the latency associated with the difference in detected times;
• and
• means for storing the calculated latency.

A system for monitoring the response times of application programs being executed on a computer, comprising:

• a configuration manager for presenting to a user a sequential listing of detectable events which occur during the execution of an application program, including means for enabling the user to select individual ones of said events to define a transaction to be monitored;
• means for examining information exchanged between the application program and an operating system running on the computer, to detect the occurrence of the events selected by the user;
• means for recording the times at which detected events occur;
• and
• means for calculating and storing the elapsed time between the occurrence of selected events, to thereby provide a metric of application response time.