The case ID, activity name, and timestamp act like a lens, a process lens, when you analyze your data with process mining.

In our latest Process Mining Café with Marco Montali from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, we first discussed the basics of how you take a process perspective by configuring your case ID, activity name, and timestamp during the import step. We showed how standard formats like MXML and XES already include the chosen perspective. And we saw that you might first need to identify what the activities are in a database context.

We then looked at examples of taking different perspectives on your process by importing the same data set in different ways. Marco showed how their ontology-based approach allows annotating the data model with the process mining semantics. You can then export the resulting perspective as an XES file and import it into a process mining tool like Disco.

We also explained why you can no longer represent the whole reality with a single data set in many-to-many relationships. Instead, you need to create multiple data sets that reflect a “flattened” perspective on the process. Alternatively, you can maintain the multidimensionality in a data format like OCEL. However, this, in turn, places the complexity into the process representation and model analysis.

Finally, we closed the session by briefly showing a few analysis-based perspectives. Such views are driven by individual analysis questions. Ultimately, as the process mining analyst, you need to decide how you want to look at the process. There is no “one correct view”. Instead, you need to create multiple views. Only all of them together provide you with the complete picture of the process.

If you missed the live broadcast or want to re-watch the café, you can now watch the recording here.

Thanks again to Marco and to all of you for joining us!

Links

Here are the links that we mentioned during the session:

• The ontology-based data extraction approach that Marco demonstrated based on the onprom toolchain
• Ontopic is the ontology-based start-up that Marco co-founded (based on the ontop open-source engine for virtual knowledge graphs)
• We showed multi-perspective visualization examples based on Event Graphs, Proclets, Object-aware nets, ISML, and Object-Centric Behavioral Constraints
• For a discussion of the object-centric process mining approach, you can also watch Wil’s camp talk from 2020
• Example for how to unfold individual activities in a hospital scheduling process
• Article about how to unfold loops for activity repetitions

Contact us via cafe@fluxicon.com if you have questions or suggestions anytime.

When you analyze a data set with process mining, you take a process perspective on your data. This perspective is determined by what you choose as the case ID, activity name, and timestamp during the import step.

In next week’s Process Mining Café, we will talk about the various process mining perspectives with our guest Marco Montali from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. We’ll also discuss their ontology-based approach to creating process mining data from a database.

Join us on Thursday 18 November, at 16:00 CEST! (Check your timezone here). Discuss with us about process mining views, data formats, and more.

As always, there is no registration required. Simply point your browser to fluxicon.com/cafe when it is time. You can watch the café and share your thoughts and questions while we are on the air, right there on the café website.

Tune in live for Process Mining Café by visiting fluxicon.com/cafe next week, Thursday 18 November, at 16:00 CEST! Add the time to your calendar to make sure you don’t miss it. Or sign up for the café mailing list here if you want us to remind you one hour before the session starts.

Imagine you have just put a lot of time into your process mining analysis. You are proud of the results, and you start sharing them within your company. Only to be stopped by the Works Council who puts the brakes on your whole project because they did not hear about this before.

This is a real risk in countries like Germany and Austria, where the Works Council guards the rights of employees and how they can be evaluated by data. However, even if your organization does not have a Works Council, you want to be the person who proactively thinks about privacy, security, and ethics in your process mining project.

A topic like ethics might seem a bit scary and abstract to some of you, but it does not need to be. As we discussed with our guests Dirk Fahland and Felix Mannhardt from TU Eindhoven, ethics is something very concrete. You can distill it down into “doing something in the right way” or “doing a good job”.

How can you do a good job in your own process mining project? In our latest Process Mining Café, Dirk, Felix, and I shared many practical tips that you can start implementing today. We also discussed new research in the area of responsible data science. Watch the recording here if you missed the live broadcast or if you want to re-watch the conversation.

Thanks again to Dirk and Felix and to all of you for joining us!

Links

Here are the links that we mentioned during the session:

• Advanced Process Mining Course and Master Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at TU/e

• TPSA workshop at this year’s ICPM (see also the TPSA 2020 summary)

• Dennis Brons, Roeland Scheepens, Dirk Fahland: Striking a new balance in accuracy and simplicity with the Probabilistic Inductive Miner. CoRR abs/2109.06288 (2021); Presented at ICPM 2021

• See this project charter and this café session for an example of an Ethical Charter

• Anonymization functionality in Disco

• FACT (Fairness, Accuracy, Transparency, and Confidentiality) principles of Responsible Data Science

• Gamal Elkoumy, Stephan A. Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Mohammadreza Fani Sani, Agnes Koschmider, Felix Mannhardt, Saskia Nuñez Von Voigt, Majid Rafiei, Leopold Von Waldthausen: Privacy and Confidentiality in Process Mining: Threats and Research Challenges. ACM Trans. Manage. Inf. Syst. 13, 1, Article 11 (2022)

• A non-technical introduction to differential privacy

Contact us via cafe@fluxicon.com if you have questions or suggestions anytime.

In next week’s Process Mining Café, we will talk about privacy, security, and ethics in process mining.

Process miners need to be aware of their responsibility, both around the data and in how they present the analysis results. Together with our guests Dirk Fahland and Felix Mannhardt from TU Eindhoven, we will discuss practical tips and the state of process mining research in the area of responsible data science.

Join us on Wednesday 6 October, at 16:00 CEST! (Check your timezone here). Discuss with us about data protection methods, how you can establish a responsible culture in the organization, and get a glimpse of what researchers are contributing to this space.

As always, there is no registration required. Simply point your browser to fluxicon.com/cafe when it is time. You can watch the café and share your thoughts and questions while we are on the air, right there on the café website.

Tune in live for Process Mining Café by visiting fluxicon.com/cafe next week, Wednesday 6 October, at 16:00 CEST! Add the time to your calendar to make sure you don’t miss it. Or sign up for the café mailing list here if you want us to remind you one hour before the session starts.

There is often a divide between the strategy and the execution world in process mining. A process mining enthusiast who directly starts to apply the process mining tool can have difficulties creating a business case. At the same time, a manager who wants to use process mining to fulfill a strategic goal might have unrealistic ideas about what is possible and how long it will take.

In our latest Process Mining Café, Rudi and I were joined by the business expert manager Bogdan Ciungu from JTI to discuss how organizations can bridge this divide.

When you introduce process mining at your organization, understanding how the process mining tool works is not your only task. You also need to figure out who will be using it and when. So, you need to understand how you can integrate the process mining analyses into the current way of working. This, in turn, depends on the use case.

Furthermore, when you bridge the divide between strategy and execution, it makes a difference whether you are coming from the top-down perspective (RFI and tool selection) or are taking a bottom-up approach (building a business case from a concrete analysis).

Watch the recording here if you missed the live broadcast or if you want to re-watch the conversation.

Thanks again to Bogdan and Rudi, and to all of you for joining us!

Links

Here are the links that we mentioned during the session:

• We mentioned this camp talk by Sebastiaan van Rijsbergen from the Nationale Nederlanden as an example that shows how the organizational buy-in can be expanded after the initial process mining analysis.

• After showing the cost-saving example, we mentioned this case study by WoonFriesland and Zig Websoftware, which shows how process mining can also lead to more revenue.

• Here is the business case template that we shared with you as a starting point for your own process mining business case (also available in an Excel version and Numbers version).

Contact us via cafe@fluxicon.com if you have questions or suggestions anytime.