Mechanisms for graph manipulation of transactional performance data are provided in order to identify and emphasize root causes of electronic business system transaction processing performance problems. A system transaction monitoring system, such as IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Transaction Performance.TM. (ITMTP) system, is utilized to obtain transaction performance data for a system. This transaction performance data is stored in a database and is utilized to present a graph of a given transaction or transactions. Having generated a graph of the transaction, and having identified problem conditions in the processing of the transaction(s), the present invention provides mechanisms for performing graph manipulation operations to best depict the root cause of the problems.