computer 41 indeed the database 42 may be collocated with the process control computer 41 such as being a part thereof being stored upon a hard disk or other storage media of the process control computer 41 as a further alternative portions of the database and or redundant copies of the database or redundant portions thereof may be stored in different locations and may be communicated with via either hard wiring or a network as desired the database preferably comprises administrative information 43 rules 44 measurement information 45 and a response history 46 as discussed above the response history 46 is a history of usage of the process control system of the present invention and thus comprises a listing of all measurement information received the rules applied to the measurement information and the control information sent in response to the measurement information the response history 46 may be used to analyze performance of the process control system of the present invention so as to determine the effectiveness and reliability thereof this is particularly useful in determining the suitability of the rules being used to control a process thus by reviewing the response history 46 it may be possible to modify the rules in a manner which optimizes the process the response history 46 may also be used to automate such an optimization process prior operation of the process control system 11 of the present invention can optionally be automatically analyzed such a via the process control computer 41 and the rules then automatically modified so as to effect enhanced operation of the process control system 11 one example of how the operation of the process control system 11 may be enhanced is by reviewing either manually or automatically the response history 46 so as to determine if any trends.