One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates automatically identifying components to monitor in an enterprise environment. During operation, the system receives a designation of the enterprise environment. The system then identifies an enterprise application in the enterprise environment. The system also scans the enterprise application for one or more software components, wherein a software component can include a service, a database, or any other object that provides functionality to the enterprise application. The system then adds each software component to a monitor list. Next, the system determines each hardware component hosting the enterprise application and the software components. The system then adds each hardware component to the monitor list. Finally, the system stores the monitor list to facilitate subsequent monitoring of the enterprise application.