1. A process for controlling a performance state machine, comprising: automatically identifying notifications from an execution trace of an application, the execution trace including a plurality of trace events within a period which has endpoints, the notifications identified through comparison of trace events to notification events for at least three notification categories; automatically placing a state in a performance state machine for each identified notification; automatically aggregating application performance data for each transition between identified notifications, the performance data collectively including data in at least two performance data categories; automatically inserting performance data aggregations in the performance state machine; displaying a visual representation of the state machine states, transitions, and performance data aggregations on a display screen; capturing altered performance of the application in an updated execution trace after the placing and inserting steps; and altering at least one state, transition, or performance data aggregation of the state machine after the capturing step.