Process Mining

More and more information about business processes is recorded by information systems in the form of so-called “event logs”. Despite the omnipresence of such data, most organizations diagnose problems based on fiction rather than facts. Process mining is an emerging discipline based on process model-driven approaches and data mining. It not only allows organizations to fully benefit from the information stored in their systems, but it can also be used to check the conformance of processes, detect bottlenecks, and predict execution problems.

Wil van der Aalst delivers the first book on process mining. It aims to be self-contained while covering the entire process mining spectrum from process discovery to operational support. In Part I, the author provides the basics of business process modeling and data mining necessary to understand the remainder of the book. Part II focuses on process discovery as the most important process mining task. Part III moves beyond discovering the control flow of processes and highlights conformance checking, and organizational and time perspectives. Part IV guides the reader in successfully applying process mining in practice, including an introduction to the widely used open-source tool ProM. Finally, Part V takes a step back, reflecting on the material presented and the key open challenges.

Overall, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in process mining. It is intended for business process analysts, business consultants, process managers, graduate students, and BPM researchers.

“This book is a good basis for a solid university course at the level of master education and post-graduate education. It presents the results of more than ten years of research in the area of process mining and its applications. … I would definitely recommend this inspirational book for research students of universities.” (Ella Roubtsova, Amazon.com, June, 2015)

“Based on decade-long research on process mining at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, van der Aalst presents in this book the purpose, role, methods, and tools of process mining. … It is best suited for mathematically mature graduate students and researchers. BPM practitioners need to study this book, too, because it introduces crucial business process improvement, conformance, and optimization concepts.” (Don Chand, Computing Reviews, September, 2011)

Wil van der Aalst is a full professor at the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), The Netherlands, where he chairs the Architecture of Information Systems (AIS) group. He also has a part-time appointment in the BPM group of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. His research and teaching interests include information systems, workflow management, Petri nets, process mining, specification languages, and simulation.

Wil has published more than 125 journal papers, 15 books, 250 refereed conference or workshop publications, and 50 book chapters. Many of his papers are highly cited (he has a H-index of more than 75 according to Google Scholar, the highest among Dutch computer scientists) and his ideas on process support have influenced researchers, software developers, and standardization committees worldwide.