Amal A. Kassatly, Shrewsbury; Taylor S. Chaney, Arlington, and Peter Floss, Grafton, all of Mass., assignors to Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, Mass.

1. A computer implemented method for analyzing information flows in an information exchange system, the information exchange system comprises a plurality of processes intercoupled by a plurality of data paths, comprising the steps of:

(a) of processes utilizing computer implemented objects to respectively represent the plurality of processes in the information exchange system being modeled and events that occur in the information exchange system;

(b) simulating the information exchange system being modeled to emulate the information flows by transferring messages between the objects, the messages being representative of information transferred between the plurality of processes in the information exchange system;

(c) storing the messages;

(d) locating stored messages that satisfy preconditions of a plurality of rules; and

(e) executing each one of the plurality of rules whose preconditions were satisfied in step (d) to identify optimal data paths for information flows in the information exchange system.