This paper discusses theoretic and practical aspects when extending performance analysis tools to support the OpenSHMEM standard for parallel programming. The theoretical part covers the mapping of OpenSHMEM’s communication primitives to a generic event record scheme that is compatible with a range of PGAS libraries. The visualization of the recorded events is included as well. The practical parts demonstrate an experimental extension for Cray-SHMEM in VampirTrace and Vampir and first results with a parallel example application. Since Cray-SHMEM is similar to OpenSHMEM in many respects, this serves as a realistic preview. Finally, an outlook on a native support for OpenSHMEM is given together with some recommendations for future revisions of the OpenSHMEM standard from the perspective of performance tools.