A Systematic Literature Review of the Analysis of Costs and Other Dimensions in Process Mining and Related Disciplines

Abstract

Process mining allows the discovery, monitoring, and improvement of processes through records of their executions. When used for discovery, models depicting the process behavior can be obtained and then analyzed through a performance perspective, focusing on performance indicators for the dimension of interest. In process mining, there has been scarce research on the analysis of some dimensions, such as the cost dimension. A systematic literature review has been conducted to identify the methods used for analyzing the cost dimension in process mining and other process-oriented disciplines, the dimensions considered jointly with costs, and how such a joint analysis is carried out. The review identified 68 publications. The results indicate ample research within distinct disciplines, like business process management and cost management, regarding the costs of performing processes, their reporting and forecasting. However, there is a need to further enrich their visualization and analysis, and to provide cost-aware operational support. Moreover, the utility of further researching cost analysis jointly with other dimensions, like time, flexibility, and quality, is also observed. These results provide a structured focal point of research that can be considered when analyzing costs from a process perspective and the identification of research gaps within this domain.