From DeveloperWorks, Tracking down a deadlock in a WebSphere Application Server V6.1 application

Learn how to use the thread dump facility in IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1 to
learn about your system environment, investigate whether a deadlock is
happening, and extract information to help you avoid or resolve deadlock
situations with your own applications.

It’s easier to pretend that WebSphere Process Server isn’t built on WebSphere Application Server and think that you don’t need to know this. But normally when your server gets really broken, you have to perform WAS level debugging. Having this knowledge helps smooth the process.