A method, a computer program product, and an information handling system is provided for identifying a causal relationship between metrics performing steps. The steps include receiving a correlation significance Sij between a metric Mi and a metric Mj; receiving a mutability attribute Ai for the Mi and a mutability attribute Aj for the metric Mj from a data source; and identifying the metric Mi causing the metric Mj with the Sij if only if the Ai is immutable and the Aj is mutable.