What Is Real User Monitoring? Definition, Key Components, and Best Practices

Real user monitoring is defined as a type of performance monitoring that captures and analyzes every transaction made on the website or application. This passive monitoring relies on web monitoring services to continuously observe the system in action, enabling it to track functionality, availability, and responsiveness. 

Real user monitoring is also referred to as real user metrics, real user measurement, or end-user experience monitoring. This article discusses the definition of real user monitoring, its key components, and best practices for 2021.

Table of Contents

• • What Is Real User Monitoring?
  • Key Components of RUM
  • Top 7 Best Practices for Successful Real User Monitoring in 2021

What Is Real User Monitoring?

Real user monitoring is a type of performance monitoring that captures and analyzes every transaction made on the website or application. This passive monitoring relies on web monitoring services to continuously observe the system in action, enabling it to track functionality, availability, and responsiveness. Real user monitoring is also referred to as real user metrics, real user measurement, or end-user experience monitoring. 

The primary function of real user monitoring is to gauge user experience, including critical metrics such as transaction paths and load time. Real user monitoring or RUM is an important element of application performance management. There are two primary types of RUM: ‘bottom-up’, which relies on recording server-side data and reconstructing end-user experience; and ‘top-down’, which is client-side in nature and can not only see real human beings interacting with an application directly but also gauge user experience. 

Top-down RUM uses local agents or JavaScript to measure site reliability and performance from the perspective of client browsers and applications and notes the relationship between user satisfaction and metrics such as website speed. Using top-down RUM, organizations can access valuable insights to optimize application components and boost overall performance.

RUM removes the need for guesswork and shows precisely how users are using—or not being allowed to use—a website or application by tracking and reporting traffic bottlenecks, slow page load times, global DNS resolution delays, and other issues. With RUM, an organization obtains penetrating visibility into a wide range of backend, frontend, and server-level issues experienced by end users across the board.

For instance, cutting-edge RUM solutions display clickstream analytics of the conditions under which specific users made it halfway through the checkout process on a website before leaving. Another example of RUM analytics is a report on how most users from a specific geographic location using a specific browser version are being dropped due to timeouts before the homepage can even load. 

By monitoring every user interaction on a particular website or application, RUM can track and notify developers of unexpected user behavior that is otherwise nearly impossible to foresee and test. RUM provides more than simple up/down availability monitoring—it brings with it end-to-end transaction analysis and reporting that enables swift and hassle-free pinpointing of problems, and thus, quick and easy resolutions.

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How RUM works

RUM leverages technology to directly collect a website or application performance metrics through the end user’s browser. Using a tiny amount of JavaScript embedded in every page, data is collected from all users as they click, scroll, pause, exit, or otherwise use the page. This data is then transferred back for analysis.

RUM solutions typically provide an option to generate reports containing visualized data. Such reports are useful because of the sheer amount of data collected by RUM, especially for platforms with high user throughput and a wide range of metrics. With visualizations such as charts, bars, and area graphs, this data is easily readable by a wider audience and can be used to collect actionable insights with ease.

Google Analytics is one of the most prominent yet basic examples of RUM. It passively monitors many interactions between users and online services, including click paths, page views, traffic sources, and browser versions. The solution then generates reports using broad data-sampling and user-averaging algorithms.

This simple yet cutting-edge tool is extremely useful for obtaining a high-level, extrapolated perspective on user-profiles and site performance. It enables organizations to monitor the performance of their website in a given browser or geographic location and essentially provides a simple gateway to intense RUM usage.

However, professional web developers and system administrators who focus on web performance monitoring generally use specialized RUM software to track website availability and response times throughout the day and glean in-depth and multi-tiered analysis that simpler tools are not able to perform. 

The difference between simpler tools such as Google Analytics and more advanced RUM solutions is largely a matter of detail, resolution, and dimensionality—while specialized RUM tools focus on the analysis of website/application performance from a user’s perspective. Google Analytics and other simpler tools focus on creating profiles of the users themselves. 

Full-featured RUM solutions monitor large data volumes using automated reinjection of small amounts of JavaScript code to track and analyze the client-side performance experience. RUM tracks critical identifying data and important milestones as users wait for a particular page to load or tap through an application through this method. 

Key events that RUM monitors include TCP connect time, DNS resolution, SSL encryption negotiation, navigation display, first-byte transmission, page render time, the user thinks time, and TCP out-of-order segments. A RUM tool can also be configured to collect additional data such as OS, network provider, web browser version, application version, user geography, device specifications, connection type (5G, 4G, Wi-Fi, EDGE, etc.), available end-to-end bandwidth, and network latency.

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Key Components of RUM

At its core, RUM is built to examine user interactions within mobile, cloud, and web-based applications, to generate a report that outlines key application metrics. This report is useful for identifying, troubleshooting, and repairing issues with the system infrastructure. With RUM, tech teams can capture live sessions and monitor user experience across various tiers. 

Developers use RUM to monitor pages visited by customers, examine the time taken for a response, and see precisely how and when specific pages malfunctioned. While specific monitoring is a key component of RUM, the true essence of this cutting-edge user experience tracking solution can be captured through the following key components:

Capturing

An application monitoring system that leverages RUM records object and page hits from numerous sources—JavaScript within a web browser, load balancers, passive network taps, or server logs. Application monitoring systems capture details such as JSON and requests for pages and miscellaneous resources from web browsers to remote servers, even when the content being requested is hosted on another website.

Sessionization

Information gathered around these website hits is reassembled into a database of the components and pages of individual visits and timing information. Captured information is regrouped into records that are broken down into elements such as pages, page components, and timing and duration data for every visit.

Problem detection

Objects, visits, and pages are meticulously examined for unexpected occurrences—errors, navigation problems, and periods of slow processing, among others. Any unusual behavior, including delayed response times, problems in the system, errors of web navigation, and other malfunctions, is analyzed for all objects, pages, and sessions.

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Individual visit reporting

With RUM, individual visits can be recreated using recorded information and reviewed by the tech team. The nature of recreated visits depends on the solution—while some solutions simply provide a summary of the visit, others can replay the screens exactly as they appeared on the visitor’s device screen. With this captured data, technicians can dive deep into the recreated sessions of individual users and analyze aspects of usage as required.

Reporting and segmentation

Another key component of RUM is the ability to look at aggregate data, such as how the application performs on a particular browser version or how available a particular page is. Aggregated information is analyzed to check whether there are any issues with page availability or performance across browser types or user segments.

Alerting

Finally, RUM can be relied on to notify the development team in case of any urgent issues being detected by inbuilt monitoring systems, as it constantly trawls the website or application and is likely to notice an issue in a timely manner—especially if other, specialized monitoring tools are not implemented. If a serious issue is spotted, the system activates a warning mechanism that alerts all relevant teams, allowing them to resolve the problem promptly.

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Top 7 Best Practices for Successful Real User Monitoring in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as the push that the world needed to move online. Today, online services are more popular than ever. This means that more and more organizations—whether government or private, and across verticals—have to rely on their online presence to cater to their consumers or constituents. 

As e-commerce moves into the limelight, RUM has become more important than ever, as even a slightly unsavory online experience could mean the loss of a customer. Here are the top seven best practices for successful real user monitoring in 2021.

Best Practices for Successful Real User Monitoring

1. Assess website/application speed

In today’s fast-paced world of technology, no customer will be willing to accept anything less than a swift, reliable online user experience from any website. A company that makes its online customers wait because of slow page load times risks seeing its customers switch over to a competitor’s website—after all, it’s just a few clicks away. As more and more physical stores shift online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, customers are spoiled for choice and are not looking to waste their already limited time waiting for any webpage to load when they could be spending it browsing products and services on a competitor’s web portal faster.

Focusing on website performance is also critical because visitors usually perceive load times longer than they are in reality. This means that even the best load times may not be perceived as such by the average customer. Some surveys capture as high as 1 out of every 2 shoppers, saying they will not return to an online portal that is slow. This makes website performance testing tools extremely important.

A swift and smooth user experience is one of the best ways to ensure repeat customer footfall. RUM can be leveraged to ensure faster website and application performance, thus enhancing customer engagement through optimum load times.

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2. Identify and track specific objectives

Goal-setting for any website is essential for the long-term success of the online strategy of any corporation. Businesses, especially newer ones, fail to understand the value of identifying and tracking specific objectives when creating a website. 

Especially in 2021, where the consumption of online sales and services is more prominent than ever before, businesses are realizing the value of staying active on the analytics and data examination front. By assigning tangible goals to website analytics, enterprises can ensure long-term success by realizing these goals.

Using RUM to identify and track specific business objectives, the tech team can align these objectives with larger business goals. For instance, RUM can help monitor an actual increase in conversion rate as per set targets. 

3. Enhance mobile testing strategy

Gone are the days when desktop computers were the most popular means of accessing the world wide web. In 2021, mobile applications are the most prominent. Companies are investing heavily in mobile apps, and with this trend comes the need for extensive mobile app testing across platforms and verticals. 

Testing smartphone applications is usually a resource-intensive undertaking that requires significant infrastructure and expertise. No company wants to be left behind when it comes to testing and QA of its mobile applications. In fact, the World Quality Report 2018-2019 placed QA and testing at over 25% of IT budgets.

With the digital world expanding since the onset of COVID-19, more and more organizations are developing and releasing native mobile applications. As such, tech teams have been facing new and varied challenges regarding development and testing. To address these challenges, mobile testers are using RUM to gain increased visibility into the user-friendliness of native mobile applications.

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4. Link performance to business operations

Performance management works off a simple tenet: a busy employee does not necessarily produce useful or even tangible results. As employment has shifted to remote and online mediums, traditional training and supervision measures no longer guarantee the results they used to. Remote performance management measures for tech teams are rapidly shifting their focus on results rather than efforts. Engineers are increasingly being tasked with the production of ‘useful’ applications for customers, both within and outside the company.

Organizations are undertaking performance management efforts that redirect employees away from being busy and toward being efficient. These performance management measures work to ensure the consistent and effective fulfillment of organizational goals. Performance management measures can be customized to focus on the organization’s performance and that of a department or team or even the effectiveness of product or service creation.

With most corporations having shifted to a ‘Work From Home’ business model globally, productivity tracking methods are changing. RUM can serve as a tool to track tech teams’ productivity by ensuring business goals are being met. This is possible by comparing real metrics with projected trends and treating RUM as a dashboard to monitor its journey towards meeting its business goals.

5. Monitor performance of new features

Numerous companies have updated their websites to include new features to keep up with changing consumer needs during the pandemic. Website performance monitoring solutions are evolving to meet the requirements of fast-paced feature integrations as companies work hard not to be left behind in terms of digital presence. 

The addition of new web services and the ability of new features to respond effectively to the needs of end users are of paramount importance to businesses in 2021. With companies enhancing their online presence to stay ahead of competitors, trying out new features in a test environment is not always enough. RUM can help locate real problems faced by real users and direct resources toward resolving them.

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6. Generate useful data for RevOps & BizOps

The operations function in any enterprise takes care of the systems, processes, and data that customer-facing functions use on a daily business. Responsibilities of this function include tool administration and implementation, documentation, and process design. Simply put, operations teams help build the roadways and keep traffic flowing at maximum efficiency. Customer experience starts with the first click or tap, and operation teams can benefit greatly from the data generated by RUM solutions as they strive to meet user satisfaction targets.

7. Ensure transaction tracing, infrastructure monitoring, and log management

Transaction tracing provides the tech team with a detailed snapshot of any customer transaction that needs to be analyzed. Data captured through transaction tracing includes available database calls, function calls, and external calls. Transaction tracing features are leveraged to troubleshoot key issues with performance and obtain detailed insights into website or app performance. The ultimate purpose of such monitoring is to collect and analyze information from within the existing IT infrastructure and use it to enhance business results and boost value creation for the enterprise.

Looking after the security, performance enhancement, and troubleshooting activities of any digital platform is a complicated task that requires as many useful tools as possible. Ultimately, basic duties when it comes to any customer-facing software organization’s performance are simple: enhancing performance, removing bugs, reducing downtime, and ensuring a happy digital experience for users. With RUM, errors in code, database, hardware, transaction containers, servers, and many others can be located and addressed in a swift and efficient manner. 

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Takeaway

Unlike in the past, when developers were reluctant to implement full-scale RUM for fear of latency, today’s cutting-edge RUM solutions are swift, effective, transparent, unobtrusive, and easy-to-use. Insights obtained from RUM are extremely useful for business, making it easier than ever to justify investing in it. Finally, today’s RUM is very easy to implement, use, and understand. Combine RUM with synthetic-user monitoring (SUM), and be assured that any issues with your application or website will be spotted before your end users have a chance to complain.

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