Visual monitoring of process runs: An application study for stored procedures

Abstract

Stored procedures are used in database systems to process and aggregate data. Hundreds of stored procedures often form a complex process network with documented and hidden dependencies that is difficult to understand, maintain, and debug. This paper introduces a novel approach to support such tasks by visually comparing a specific process run to other runs of the same process. The visualization is based on a force-directed node-link diagram arranged on a timeline. Color coding, histograms, and trend charts are used to highlight temporal deviations. The approach has been implemented as an interactive web application and used by professional database developers for solving realistic maintenance and debugging tasks. The feedback of these expert users confirms the usefulness and practical relevance of the approach.