Methods for obtaining and analyzing a reduced data set are disclosed. In an embodiment, runtime dependencies between components are identified. Based on runtime dependencies, it is determined that a first component is configured to access a second component during runtime but is not configured to access a third component during the runtime. A subset of monitoring data associated with the second component is reported. A subset of the monitoring data associated with the third component is not reported. In an embodiment, a first data set associated with a component is obtained. The first data set is aggregated by monitoring of the component. A second data set, associated with the component, is simulated. The second data set is simulated based on the first data set and/or data modeling associated with the component. A characteristic and/or performance of the component is analyzed based on the first data set and the second data set.