A computer-based method of formatting rules for monitoring application responsiveness, the method including defining a collection of resources, each such resource being a source of application events; and defining a first transaction as a timeframe for measuring application responsiveness. The first transaction includes a pattern of application events from resources in the collection of resources, the pattern being defined as a block of constructs, wherein each construct in the block of constructs is selected from a group of construct syntaxes consisting of an event construct syntax, a choice construct syntax, a sequence construct syntax, and a last construct syntax. The the event construct syntax specifies a category of application events for the pattern to accept; the choice construct syntax specifies an option set of constructs from the group of construct syntaxes, any one of which is acceptable to the pattern; the sequence construct syntax specifies a sequence of constructs from the group of construct syntaxes, for the pattern to accept sequentially; and the last construct syntax specifies a final set of constructs from the group of construct syntaxes, such that the final set of constructs must be satisfied for the pattern to be matched.