Disclosed are a method, system, and computer program product for identifying one or more common factors or causes which explain the one or more network threshold violations. In one embodiment, the method or the system identifies one or more network components within a network and then identifies which of the one or more network components is overloaded. The method or the system then identifies one or more simple factors for the identified network components where the one or more simple factors constitute one or more causes for overloaded network activity. The method or the system then determines a scaled composite weight for a simple factor to determine whether the scaled composite weight exceeds a second threshold. If certain simple factors are determined to exceed the second threshold, such simple factors are added to a list of common factors which are in turn stored in a tangible computer accessible medium.