Patent ID: 7783745

Claim:
A method for monitoring a business service, the method comprising the steps of: analyzing historical data for a first set of metrics, wherein each metric of said first set of metrics corresponds to one or more activities related to the performance of the business service; based on said historical data, selecting a second set of metrics from the first set of metrics, wherein each metric in the second set of metrics is selected from the first set of metrics because historical data for the metric exhibits one or more repeating patterns; and from the second set of metrics, selecting one or more metrics to be one or more business rhythm metrics; wherein said one or more business rhythm metrics are metrics that characterize normal behavior of an aspect of the business service; wherein selecting the one or more business rhythm metrics comprises: a) ranking each particular metric of the second set of metrics based on statistical characteristics of the one or more repeating patterns for the particular metric; and b) selecting the one or more business rhythm metrics based on the ranking; monitoring the one or more business rhythm metrics for variances in the normal behavior of the aspect of the business service, as represented by the one or more repeating patterns exhibited by the one or more business rhythm metrics; in response to detecting a variance in the normal behavior of the aspect of the business service, as evidenced by values obtained for the one or more business rhythm metrics during the monitoring, triggering an action; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.