Monitor computer system performance to ensure proper operation
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
A scheduled check against a live source, with an alert when something moves, is one of the cheapest things on this page to automate, and software will watch far more indicators than a person can hold in their head. What it does not do is notice the thing nobody thought to watch for, or decide that a reading is worth acting on.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Monitoring and oversight |
| Jobs that do it | 5 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Builders, Tools and auth |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings (4.A.1.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 5 occupations that perform it.
- Test, maintain, and monitor computer programs and systems, including coordinating the installation of computer programs and systems.
- Oversee the daily performance of computer systems.
- Monitor functioning of equipment to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications.
- Monitor bug resolution efforts and track successes.
- Monitor system operation to detect potential problems.
- Monitor program performance to ensure efficient and problem-free operations.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for monitoring and oversight, and what it costs.
Monitoring is a scheduled check plus an alert, which is the cheapest thing on this site to build: Make from $9 a month, or n8n for nothing if you host it yourself. A dedicated monitoring product is very rarely worth the line item.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
Who does this work
5 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Monitor operation of computer or information technologies”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Monitor the security of digital information | 5 |
| Monitor the performance of computer networks | 5 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.