A collaborative diagnostic system monitors events in a system and identifies a causality chain from a detected performance issue to the root cause of that performance issue. The collaborative diagnostic system includes multiple issue detectors, multiple analysis core modules, and multiple scenario modules that work together to identify the causality chain and root cause. Each issue detector is a module or component that includes logic to detect known behaviors in the system, such as performance issues in the system. Each analysis core module includes logic to analyze and correlate low level system behavior within a conceptual area. Within each analysis core module are one or more diagnostic modules that are specific to that analysis core module to help determine what is happening in the system. Each scenario module includes logic to take an appropriate responsive action in response to the root cause of a performance issue being determined.