Docs » Scenarios for troubleshooting errors and monitoring application performance using Splunk APM » Scenario: Kai tracks how services impact Business Workflows

Scenario: Kai tracks how services impact Business Workflows ๐Ÿ”—

Kai, a site reliability engineer at Buttercup Games, wants to know how the applicationโ€™s microservices impact business KPIs at Buttercup Games.

To track how microservices impact business KPIs, Kai takes the following steps:

  1. Kai reviews the APM Overview

  2. Kai opens the service map to find services with root-cause errors

  3. Kai breaks down the services by workflow to see error details by workflow

Kai reviews the APM Overview ๐Ÿ”—

Kai opens the APM Overview, which generates charts of all services and Business Workflows by error rate or latency and highlights the top services and Business Workflows. Kai finds that 2 Business Workflows, which track business KPIs at Buttercup games, have atypical error rates.

This screenshot shows the APM Overview page, which has charts of latency and requests/errors of all Business Workflows.

Kai opens the service map to find services with root-cause errors ๐Ÿ”—

Kai selects the Service Map card to open the service map. Kai selects nodes with red dots that indicate services with root-cause errors. In this case, paymentservice and checkoutservice nodes are showing root-case errors.

Kai breaks down the services by workflow to see error details by workflow ๐Ÿ”—

Kai uses the Breakdown menu to break down each service by Workflow and selects each workflow node to see charts that provide error and latency details. Kai discovers that the paymentservice contributes to the errors for PaymentService/Charge and frontend/chart/checkout workflows, and the checkoutservice doesnโ€™t impact any Business Workflows. Kai sends this information to the payment service owner to resolve the errors impacting overall business KPIs.

This screenshot shows charts and numerical data of the requests, errors, and root causes in the Business Workflow node.

Summary ๐Ÿ”—

Kai used Business Workflows to monitor and isolate services that impact business KPIs at Buttercup Games.

Learn more ๐Ÿ”—

For information about business workflows, see Correlate traces to track Business Workflows.