US Patent 7870431 Transaction tracer

A user specifies a threshold trace period and can initiate transaction tracing on one, some or all of the transactions running on a software system. Transactions with an execution time that exceeds the threshold trace period are reported to the user using a graphical user interface that lists transactions exceeding the specified threshold. For each listed transaction, a visualization can be provided that enables the user to immediately understand where time was being spent in the traced transaction.