Contemporary workflow management systems are driven by explicit process models, i.e., a completely specified workflow design is required in order to enact a given workflow process. Creating a workflow design is a complicated time-consuming process and, typically, there are discrepancies between the actual workflow processes and the processes as perceived by the management. Therefore, we have developed techniques for discovering workflow models. The starting point for such techniques is a so-called "workflow log" containing information about the workflow process as it is actually being executed. We present a new algorithm to extract a process model from such a log and represent it in terms of a Petri net. However, we also demonstrate that it is not possible to discover arbitrary workflow processes. We explore a class of workflow processes that can be discovered. We show that the /spl alpha/-algorithm can successfully mine any workflow represented by a so-called SWF-net.

/pdf/workflow-mining-discovering-process-models-from-event-logs-2e3us8cswr.pdf

Workflow mining: discovering process models from event logs

Many of today's information systems are driven by explicit process models. Workflow management systems, but also ERP, CRM, SCM, and B2B, are configured on the basis of a workflow model specifying the order in which tasks need to be executed. Creating a workflow design is a complicated time-consuming process and typically there are discrepancies between the actual workflow processes and the processes as perceived by the management. To support the design of workflows, we propose the use of workflow mining. Starting point for workflow mining is a so-called "workflow log" containing information about the workflow process as it is actually being executed. In this paper, we introduce the concept of workflow mining and present a common format for workflow logs. Then we discuss the most challenging problems and present some of the workflow mining approaches available today.

/pdf/workflow-mining-a-survey-of-issues-and-approaches-3w9qivv4j2.pdf

Workflow mining: a survey of issues and approaches

https://is.ieis.tue.nl/staff/aweijters/PM_research_agenda.pdf

Process mining: a research agenda

http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2002/HPL-2002-119.pdf

Business process intelligence

Mining exact models of concurrent workflows

Today, process schemes are required for a lot of purposes. Extracting process schemes from event-based data is an alternative to creating them manually. Process Miner is a research prototype that can extract process schemes from event-based data. Its extracting procedure is a multistage data mining that uses a special process model. This paper outlines the main features of the tool and gives an insight into the theoretical background. Also, it describes shortly its implementation and outlines its experimental evaluation.

/pdf/process-miner-a-tool-for-mining-process-schemes-from-event-msdly538d0.pdf

Process Miner - A Tool for Mining Process Schemes from Event-Based Data

Visual-oriented process modeling concepts and languages used today often lead to modeling of "spaghetti-processes". Thus, the process models are not applicable effectively in distributed, partially automated and dynamic scenarios. They also support permanent adaptation and composition of process models insufficiently. The approach of Generic Linear Business Process Modeling describes a meta model that aims to avoid these inadequacy. According to the concept of linear programming, nested logic blocks are applied to model the process flow. Additionally, by using generic blocks composition and amplifying of process models on different levels of detail is achieved. Further the approach outlines the visualization of generic linear process models and an XML based format in order to exchange the models in a networked business environment.

Generic Linear Business Process Modeling

This paper presents an approach on mining most specific workflow models from event-based data. The approach is embedded in the context of data mining and knowledge discovery in databases. It consists of two parts. The first one is an introduction of a block-structured workflow model representation and the second one is an extraction procedure for workflow models based on that model representation. This paper describes both parts in detail and also outlines preceding and subsequent steps.

Guido Schimm

Papers

Mining exact models of concurrent workflows

Process Miner - A Tool for Mining Process Schemes from Event-Based Data

Generic Linear Business Process Modeling

Mining most specific workflow models from event-based data