A method for application performance data collection includes steps or acts of: customizing a performance tool for collecting application performance data of an application; modifying the application by inserting the performance tool while the application does not need to be rebuilt from the source; executing the application; and collecting the application execution performance data such that only interesting data is collected. Customizing the performance tool proceeds by implementing at least one configurable tracing function that can be programmed by the user; compiling the function(s) into an object file; and inserting the object file into the performance tool using binary instrumentation.