faculteit technologie management /faculteit wiskunde en informatica PM-1 Process mining: Discovering Process Models from Event Logs Prof.dr.ir. Wil van

/faculteit technologie management

PM-1/faculteit wiskunde en informatica

Process mining: Discovering Process Models from Event Logs

Prof.dr.ir. Wil van der AalstEindhoven University of Technology, P.O.Box 513, NL-5600 MB,

Eindhoven, The Netherlands.



Outline

• Who we are ...– I&T group– selected research projects

• Process mining– purpose– basic idea– (re)discovery problem– mining algorithm (W)– comparison– example/tools– case study

• Conclusion



Who we are ...



Information & Technology (I&T) group at EUT

• I&T group (35 persons), Department of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology.

• Three subgroups:– Business Process Management

(workflow management, Petri nets, mining, ...)

– ICT Architectures(agents, transactions, ...)

– Software Engineering(software quality, ...)



Selected research projects

• process mining • workflow verification• workflow patterns• web services composition languages• case handling• XRL/flower• business process improvement• ...In most cases using/extending Petri net theory!



Workflow verification: Woflan

• Can interface with Staffware, Protos, COSA, Meteor.

• Can handle Event-driven Process Chains (ARIS)



Workflow patterns

• The academicresponse

• A quest for the basic requirements

• 20 basic patterns• 20+ systems

evaluated• Joint work with QUT,

ATOS, etc. • http://www.tm.tue.nl/it/research/patterns• +/- 150 pageviews per working day (>25.000 in total)



Web services composition languagespattern standard

XPDL UML BPEL XLANG WSFL BPML WSCI

Sequence + + + + + + +

Parallel Split + + + + + + +

Synchronization + + + + + + +

Exclusive Choice + + + + + + +

Simple Merge + + + + + + +

Multi Choice + - + - + - -

Synchronizing Merge - - + - + - -

Multi Merge - - - - - +/- +/-

Discriminator - - - - - - -

Arbitrary Cycles + - - - - - -

Implicit Termination + - + - + + +

MI without Synchronization - - + + + + +

MI with a Priori Design Time Knowledge + + + + + + +

MI with a Priori Runtime Knowledge - + - - - - -

MI without a Priori Runtime Knowledge - - - - - - -

Deferred Choice - + + + - + +

Interleaved Parallel Routing - - +/- - - - -

Milestone - - - - - - -

Cancel Activity - + + + + + +

Cancel Case - + + + + + +

• Also process support.• Standards

considered are BPML, BPEL4WS, XLANG, WSFL, WSCI.

• Joint work with QUT (Brisbane, Australia).



Process miningTeam members:• Wil van der Aalst• Ton Weijters• Laura Maruster• Ana-Karla Medeiros• Boudewijn van Dongen• Eric Verbeek



Business Process Management

processdesign

implementation/configuration

processenactment

diagnosis



No feedback loop

processdesign

implementation/configuration

processenactment

diagnosis



The basic idea

process mining



Toy example case 1 : task A case 2 : task A case 3 : task A case 3 : task B case 1 : task B case 1 : task C case 2 : task C case 4 : task A case 2 : task B case 2 : task D case 5 : task A case 4 : task C case 1 : task D case 3 : task C case 3 : task D case 4 : task B case 5 : task E case 5 : task D case 4 : task D

ABCD {cases 1,3}ACBD {cases 2,4}AED {case 5}



Result: A Petri net model

ABCD

ACBD

AED

A

B

C

DE

(W)

Petri nets are used as a formalism, the target language can be different, e.g., Event-driven Process Chains.



generate workflow logbased on WF-net

construct WF-net basedon applying workflow

mining techniques

workflow log

WF-net

WF1 = WF2 ?

Focus of this presentation is on the following theoretical question:



• Assumption: complete workflow logs without noise. • Let T be a set of tasks. T* is a workflow trace and W T*

is a workflow log.• Let W be a workflow log over T, i.e., W T*. Let a,b T:

– a > W b if and only if there is a trace = t1 t2 t3 tn-1 and i {1, , n-2} such that W and ti = a and ti+1 = b,

– a W b if and only if a > W b and not (b > W a),

– a #W b if and only if not(a > W b) and not(b > W a), and

– a W b if and only if a > W b and b > W a.

• Let N = (P,T,F) be a sound WF-net, i.e., N W. W is a workflow log of N if and only if W T* and every trace W is a firing sequence of N starting in state [i], i.e., (N,[i])\protect[.

• W is a complete workflow log of N if and only if (1) for any workflow log W of N: > W > W and (2) for any t T there is a W such that t .



Example 1case 1 : task A case 2 : task A case 3 : task A case 3 : task B case 1 : task B case 1 : task C case 2 : task C case 4 : task A case 2 : task B case 2 : task D case 5 : task A case 4 : task C case 1 : task D case 3 : task C case 3 : task D case 4 : task B case 5 : task E case 5 : task D

case 4 : task D

W = { A B C D, A C B D, A E D}

A > W B A > W C A > W E B > W CB > W D C > W BC > W DE > W D

AW B

A W C

A W E

B W D

C W D

E W D

B W

CC W

B

#W : rest

Log is complete if this relation cannot be extended

XW Y xorYW X xorX W Y xor

X #W Y



Example 2

A

B

C

D

W = { A B C D, A C B D} is completeA > W B A > W C B > W CB > W D C > W BC > W D

AW B

A W C

B W D

C W D

B W

CC W

B

#W : rest



Example 3

W = { A B D, A C D} is complete

A > W B A > W C B > W D C > W D

AW B

A W C

B W D

C W DW :non

e

#W : rest

A

B

C

D



Causal relations imply connecting places

• Let N = (P,T,F) be a sound WF-net and let W be a complete workflow log of N. For any a,b T: a W b implies a b .

• I.e., if there is a causal relation between two transitions according to the workflow log, then there has to be a place connecting these two transitions.

• Surprisingly this holds for any sound WF-net!

A

B

C

DAW B

A W C

B W D

C W DA

B

C

D



Connecting places “often” imply causal relations

• Let N = (P,T,F) be a sound SWF-net and let W be a complete workflow log of N. For any a,b T: a b and b a = implies a W b.

• No “short loops” (i.e., loops of length 1 or 2).• Structured Workflow Nets (SWF-nets) have no implicit places

and the following two constructs cannot be used:



Example 4: loops of length 1 are harmful

A

B

D

AW B

A W D

B W D There is a place connecting B to B but not B W B.



Example 5: loops of length 2 are harmful

AW B

B W D

There is a place connecting B to C but not B W C (because C can be followed directly by B).

A

B

C

D

There is a place connecting C to B but not C W B (because B can be followed directly by C).



Example 6: Implicit places remain undetected

A B C

AW B

B W C

More complex examples can be given showing that the two other requirements for non-SWF-nets are needed.



Parallelism can “often” be detected

• Let N = (P,T,F) be a sound SWF-net such that for any a,b T: a b = or b a = and let W be a complete workflow log of N. 1.If a,b T and a b , then a #W b.

2.If a,b T and a b , then a #W b.

3.If a,b,t T, a W t, b W t, and a #Wb, then a b t .

4.If a,b,t T, t W a, t W b, and a #Wb, then a b t .

• This is a complex way of stating that for sound SWF-nets without short loops, it is possible to distinguish XOR-splits from AND-splits and XOR-joins from AND-joins.



Mining algorithm (W)

Let W be a workflow log over T. (W) is defined as follows.

1. TW = { t T W t },

2. TI = { t T W t = first() },

3. TO = { t T W t = last() },

4. XW = { (A,B) A TW B TW a Ab B a W b a1,a2 A a1#W

a2 b1,b2 B b1#W b2 },

5. YW = { (A,B) X (A,B) XA A B B (A,B) = (A,B) },

6. PW = { p(A,B) (A,B) YW } {iW,oW},

7. FW = { (a,p(A,B)) (A,B) YW a A } { (p(A,B),b) (A,B) YW b

B } { (iW,t) t TI} { (t,oW) t TO}, and

8. (W) = (PW,TW,FW).



Solution to the rediscovery problem• Let N = (P,T,F) be a sound SWF-net and let W be a

complete workflow log of N. If for all a,b T a b = or b a = , then (W) = N modulo renaming of places.

• I.e., any sound SWF-net without short loops can be rediscovered!

generate workflow logbased on WF-net

construct WF-net basedon applying workflow

mining techniques

workflow log

WF-net

WF1 = WF2 ?



Example 7: Sound SWF-net without short loops

A

B

C

D

A

B

C

D



Example 8: A WF-net with an implicit place

A B C

A B C

(W)



Example 9: Loop of length 1

A

B

D

A

B

D

(W)




A

B

C

D

A

B

C

D

(W)




A B

C

D

E

A B

C

D

E

No problem!

(W)



Example 12: Non-free-choice constructs may be harmful

A D

C

EBA D

C

EB

(W)



Example 13: Free-choice is not enough

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

Behaviorally equivalent!

(W)



Example 14: Example with “hidden” tasks ?

A

AND-split

B

C

AND-join

D

E

Any suggestions?



Simplification!

A

B

C

DE

Behaviorally equivalent!

(W)



Results and issues

• Proven to be correct for a large class of processes.• Notion of completeness is needed (direct successor

relation).• Can handle parallelism and time.• Open issues:

– noise– incomplete logs– data– advanced process patterns (hidden tasks, NFC, etc.)– behavioral equivalence

• On each of these issues we have some preliminary results.



Scientific competition

• J.E. Cook (and A.L. Wolf) – New Mexico State University/ University of Colorado, USA

• J. Herbst (and D. Karagiannis) – DaimlerChrysler, Germany• R. Agrawal, D. Gunopulos, M.K. Maxeiner, K. Küspert, and

F. Leymann – IBM, Germany• G. Schimm – OFFIS, Germany• S.Y. Hwang et al. – Sun Yeat-Sen University, Taiwan• M. Golani and S.S. Pinter – IBM, Israel• D. Grigori, F. Casati, et al. – HP, USA

Our approach differs because we incorporate time and noise and take parallelism as a starting point.



Practical competition (ARIS PPM)

• IDS Scheer's ARIS Process Performance Manager. • No process mining but interesting links with systems like

SAP.



Tools/standards for process mining

Staffware

InConcert

MQ Series

workflow management systems

FLOWer

Vectus

Siebel

case handling / CRM systems

SAP R/3

BaaN

Peoplesoft

ERP systems

common XML format for storing/exchanging workflow logs

EMiT Thumb

mining tools



Example: processing customer orders

Example in Staffware: 7 tasks and

all basic routing

constructs



Fragment of Staffware logCase 21

Diractive Description Event User yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Start swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:00

Register order Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:00

Register order Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:00

Prepare shipment Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:00

(Re)send bill Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:00

(Re)send bill Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:01

Receive payment Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:01

Prepare shipment Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:01

Ship goods Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:01

Ship goods Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Receive payment Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Archive order Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Archive order Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Terminated 2003/02/05 15:02

Case 22

Diractive Description Event User yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Start swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Register order Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Register order Released By swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02

Prepare shipment Processed To swdemo@staffw_edl 2003/02/05 15:02



Fragment of XML file<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE WorkFlow_log SYSTEM

"http://www.tm.tue.nl/it/research/workflow/mining/WorkFlow_log.dtd"><WorkFlow_log>

<source program="staffware"/><process id="main_process">

<case id="case_0"><log_line>

<task_name>Case start</task_name><event kind="normal"/><date>05-02-2003</date><time>15:04</time>

</log_line><log_line>

<task_name>Register order</task_name><event kind="schedule"/><date>05-02-2003</date><time>15:04</time>



EMiT

Focus on time and causality.



Thumb

Focus on noise.



Thumb is able to deal with noise (D/F-graphs)

causality

no noise 10% noise



Real case: CJIB

• Processing of fines

• 130136 cases

• 99 different activities



Process in EMiT



Complete process model

Validated by CJIB



SAP R/3



Conclusion

• Process mining is both a scientific and practical challenge.

• Preliminary results are promising.

• Challenging problems:– Finding the right data in real information systems.

– Dealing with noise and incompleteness.

– Dealing with advanced synchronization patterns.

– Dealing with hidden tasks/behavioral equivalence.

Documents

faculteit technologie management /faculteit wiskunde en informatica PM-1 Process mining: Discovering Process Models from Event Logs Prof.dr.ir. Wil van