Under the present invention, components of an enterprise architecture are
first identified. This process not only involves hardware, software and
topographic identification, but also includes developing and documenting
an understanding of the business processes occurring within the
enterprise architecture. Based on this analysis, an enterprise
architecture profile is developed. Thereafter, transactions that occur
within the enterprise architecture are identified, and data related
thereto is collected for different geographic regions. In general, a
transaction involves a set (e.g., one or more) of steps (e.g., "clicks")
within an application of the enterprise architecture. For each such step,
data is collected. Based on the data collection one or more transaction
class profiles are developed. Using these profile(s) and the enterprise
architecture profile, transaction response time(s) can be estimated.