Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system provides a schema for including, by a set of components in a multi-tier architecture, a tracking identifier for an entity instance in the multi-tier architecture. Next, the system identifies, from a set of tracking events received from the multi-tier architecture, a subset of the tracking events containing the tracking identifier. The system then groups the subset of the tracking events into an entity lifecycle for the entity instance. Finally, the system outputs the entity lifecycle for use in assessing a performance of the multi-tier architecture by a consumer of tracking data.