Analyzing How Process Mining Reports Answer Time Performance Questions

Abstract

The advances in process mining have provided process analysts with a plethora of different algorithms and techniques that can be used for different purposes. Previous research has studied the relationship between these techniques and business questions, but how process analysts use them to answer specific questions is not fully understood yet. We are interested in discovering how process analysts respond to specific business questions related to time performance. We have coded 110 answers to time performance questions in more than 60 process mining reports. As a result, we have identified 55 different operations with 137 variants used in them. We have analyzed the types of answers and their similarities, and examined how contextual information as well as existing process mining support may affect them. The results of the study provide an overview of the current state-of-practice to answer time performance questions and unveil opportunities to improve process mining tools and the way these questions are answered.