A method for monitoring a laboratory automation device, the laboratory automation device comprising a plurality of device components (14, 16), which are controlled by digital control commands, the digital control commands being generated by a controller of the laboratory automation device from assay definition data defining an assay procedure for the laboratory automation device wherein the laboratory automation device includes a software module, for executing the method and comprising a simulation model of the laboratory automation device, which is executed in the controller of the laboratory automation device or in an additional computing device different from the controller of the laboratory automation device; the method comprising: receiving the control commands by the software module; inputting the control commands into the simultation model of the laboratory automation device with the monitoring device (20, 34), the simulation model comprising model components for at least some of the device components (14, 16); updating the simulation model by simulating state changes of the device components (14, 16) based on the control commands, wherein the model components of the simulation model comprise one or more virtual objects, which are virtually moved by a simulation engine based on the control commands, the virtual objects representing substances in the laboratory automating device, which substances are processed by the device components (14, 16); determining a virtual processing state of the laboratory automation device from the updated simulation model with the software module; determining a desired processing state of the laboratory automation device from the assay definition data with the software module, wherein the assay definition data comprises an ordered list of entries, each entry encoding one or more desired processing states to be reached by the laboratory automation device after the entry has been executed by the laboratory automation device; comparing the desired processing state with the virtual processing state with the software module for deciding, whether the assay procedure was correctly executed, wherein the desired processing states and the virtual processing states have matching pairs of codes and when a code for a desired processing state determined from the assay definition data is different from a code for a virtual processing state determined from the simulation model, it is assumed that the assay definition data was not correctly translated into the control commands that have been sent to the laboratory automation device. receiving the control commands by the software module; inputting the control commands into the simultation model of the laboratory automation device with the monitoring device (20, 34), the simulation model comprising model components for at least some of the device components (14, 16); updating the simulation model by simulating state changes of the device components (14, 16) based on the control commands, wherein the model components of the simulation model comprise one or more virtual objects, which are virtually moved by a simulation engine based on the control commands, the virtual objects representing substances in the laboratory automating device, which substances are processed by the device components (14, 16); determining a virtual processing state of the laboratory automation device from the updated simulation model with the software module; determining a desired processing state of the laboratory automation device from the assay definition data with the software module, wherein the assay definition data comprises an ordered list of entries, each entry encoding one or more desired processing states to be reached by the laboratory automation device after the entry has been executed by the laboratory automation device; comparing the desired processing state with the virtual processing state with the software module for deciding, whether the assay procedure was correctly executed, wherein the desired processing states and the virtual processing states have matching pairs of codes and when a code for a desired processing state determined from the assay definition data is different from a code for a virtual processing state determined from the simulation model, it is assumed that the assay definition data was not correctly translated into the control commands that have been sent to the laboratory automation device.