1. A method comprising: receiving user inputs via a graphical user interface to form a data flow pipeline, the data flow pipeline having nodes and connections between the nodes to represent an execution graph of algorithm action components that are used to process streaming data flows; activating the data flow pipeline using one or more computing devices of one or more network services for a predetermined amount of time at an initial level of provisioning of computing resources for the data flow pipeline; sampling machine performance metrics at nodes of the pipeline for the predetermined amount of time; calculating flow rate efficiency of the nodes in the data flow pipeline for the predetermined amount of time from the samples by propagating input source streaming data rates through the data flow pipeline; identifying whether underflow or overflow conditions are likely to exist for individual ones of the nodes of the data flow pipeline based on the calculations of the flow rate efficiency; and responsive to the identifying that the underflow or overflow conditions are likely to exist, adjusting the initial level of provisioning of the computing resources.