Discovering and Exploring State-Based Models for Multi-perspective Processes

Abstract

Abstract. Process mining provides fact-based insights into process behaviour captured in event data. In this work we aim to discover models for processes where different facets, or perspectives, of the process can be identified. Instead of focussing on the events or activities that are executed in the context of a particular process, we concentrate on the states of the different perspectives and discover how they are related. We present a formalisation of these relations and an approach to discover state-based models highlighting them. The approach has been implemented using the process mining framework ProM and provides a highly interactive visualisation of the multi-perspective state-based models. This tool has been evaluated on the BPI Challenge 2012 data of a loan application process and on product user behaviour data gathered by Philips during the development of a smart baby bottle equipped with various sensors.

Guided Interaction Exploration and Performance Analysis in Artifact-Centric Process Models

“…Several approaches have also been developed to take an object-oriented or artifact-centric view of process mining (van der Aalst et al 2001;Popova et al 2015). However, the number of techniques that can automatically discover the interactions between artifact models is limited (Lu et al 2015;van Eck et al 2016b). …”

“…One of the sources of complexity of discovered process models is that many process discovery approaches produce models that provide a monolithic view on the real process (van der Aalst 2016;van Eck et al 2016b). Such monolithic models explain the behaviour of a process in terms of the life-cycle of a single process instance.…”

“…Recently, it has become possible to automatically discover models for process artifacts and their behavioural interactions (Lu et al 2015;van Eck et al 2016b;Popova et al 2015). These techniques produce individual process models for each artifact, similar to traditional process discovery approaches.…”

“…There are different ways to interpret the interaction of artifacts (Lu et al 2015;van Eck et al 2016b;Popova and Dumas 2013). We are interested in finding implications that given the occurrence of a state or activity related to one artifact-lifecycle provide information on the possible behaviour of other artifacts.…”

“…Artifact-centric techniques can provide more structured process models than traditional discovery approaches (van Eck et al 2016b). By decomposing the process, smaller and simpler models are obtained with fewer states and state transitions per model.…”