Process Mining for Ubiquitous Mobile Systems

An Overview and a Concrete Algorithm

Prof.dr.ir. Wil van der AalstEindhoven University of Technology

Department of Information and TechnologyP.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven

The Netherlandsw.m.p.v.d.aalst@tm.tue.nl

Joint work with Ana Karla Alves de Medeiros, Boudewijn van Dongen, and Ton Weijters.

Outline

• Motivation: Process mining in the context of UMSs

• Process mining– An overview– The alpha algorithm– The alpha+ algorithm

• Applications

• Conclusion

Motivation

• Human activities are increasingly supported by electronic tools.

• These tools are increasingly mobile and ubiquitous, cf. PDAs, Bluetooth, WLAN, smart clothes, etc.

• Tracing human behavior/processes will become easier, cf. RFID, GSM, etc.

Ubiquitous computing

Reference: Alan Daniel, Georgia Institute of Technology.http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_fall/projects/gacha/daniels_essay.html

“Each person is continually interacting with hundreds of … interconnected computers” which ideally “weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it”Mark Weiser 1991/1993

Assumptions

• Increasingly information systems are composed of autonomous components/agents/… thus allowing for more flexibility and mobility.– This will trigger the need for monitoring

processes/human behavior.

• Information systems will be ubiquitous.– This will allow for the collection of event data.

UbiquitousMobile

Systems (UMS)

ProcessMining(PM)

Process mining

• Process mining can be used for:– Process discovery (What is the process?)

– Delta analysis (Are we doing what was specified?)

– Performance analysis (How can we improve?)

process mining

Registerorder

Prepareshipment

Shipgoods

Receivepayment

(Re)sendbill

Contactcustomer

Archiveorder

www.processmining.org

Process mining: Overview

1) basic performance metrics

2) process modelStart

Register order

Prepareshipment

Ship goods

(Re)send bill

Receive paymentContact

customer

Archive order

End

3) organizational model 4) social network

5) performance characteristics

If …then …

6) auditing/security

Process Mining: The alpha algorithm

alpha algorithm

22 Opbergen en einde

10 registreren

14 eindcontrolere, tekenen Standaard

17 bepalen vervolg

9 Bepalen vervolg1

18 registreren offerte gesloten

13 inv., 1e controle, printen STANDAARD

3 controleren compleetheid/juistheid

1 start

2 collectief of particulier

12 Bepalen offerte standaard of NIET

klaar voor invoeren

Goedgekeurde offerte

begin proces

klaar voor controle

compleet/juist

klaar voor registreren

naar registreren

offerte uitgeprint

klaar voor einde

Standaard offerte

afgekeurde offerte

20 ontvangst verklaring

P2 accoord verklaring

7 ontvangst gegevens

P1 ontbrekende gegevens

19 wachten op accoord verklaring

16 eindcontrolere, tekenen niet std.

15 inv, 1e controle, printen NIET STD.

retour gewenst

wachten2

4 dubbele aanvraag?

5 navraag VA (telefoon)

6 opvragen ontbrekende gegevens

NS uitgeprint

D2 geen retour ontvangen

Niet Standaard offerte

21 registreren offerte afgelegd

is collectief

opvagen gegevens

wachten

dubbele

D1 Geen reactie

8 verlopen deadline

11 afwijzen

Afgekeurd NS

afgewezen

collectief retour reeds ontvangen

P of C retour gewenst

particulier zonder retour

collectief

particulier en invoerenparticulier en afwijzen

niet compleet/onjuist

particulier

collectief

incompleet

voldoendeonvoldoende

Process log• Minimal information in

log: case id’s and task id’s.

• Additional information: event type, time, resources, and data.

• In this log there are three possible sequences:– ABCD– ACBD– EF

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 E case 4 : task C case 1 : task D case 3 : task C case 3 : task D case 4 : task B case 5 : task F case 4 : task D

>,,||,# relations

• Direct succession: x>y iff for some case x is directly followed by y.

• Causality: xy iff x>y and not y>x.

• Parallel: x||y iff x>y and y>x

• Choice: x#y iff not x>y and not y>x.

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 E case 4 : task C case 1 : task D case 3 : task C case 3 : task D case 4 : task B case 5 : task F case 4 : task D

A>BA>CB>CB>DC>BC>DE>F

AB

AC

BD

CD

EF

B||CC||B

Basic idea (1)

x y

xy

Basic idea (2)

xy, xz, and y||z

x

z

y

Basic idea (3)

xy, xz, and y#z

x

z

y

Basic idea (4)

xz, yz, and x||y

x

y

z

Basic idea (5)

xz, yz, and x#y

x

y

z

It is not that simple: Basic alpha algorithm

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).

Examplecase 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 E case 4 : task C case 1 : task D case 3 : task C case 3 : task D case 4 : task B case 5 : task F case 4 : task D

A

B

C

D

E F

(W)

W

Problems of basic alpha algorithm

• Hidden tasks

• Duplicate tasks

• Short-loopsA

B

C

D

E G

F

Loop of length 2

Loop of length 1

A

B

C

D

E G

F

A

B

C

D

E G

F

Dealing with short loops: The alpha+ algorithm

This paper deals with short loops.• Loops of length 2 are addressed by refining the

ordering relations (look for xyx to distinguish a loop from x||y).

• Loops of length 1 are addressed by a pre-processing step where they are first removed and then added in a post-processing step.

(For details, see paper.)(Approach has been implemented and tested.)

Process Mining: Tooling

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

MinSoN

Applications

• We have applied/are applying our process mining techniques within several organizations (CJIB, RWS, UWV, …).

• We did not apply them in the context of Ubiquitous Mobile Systems (UMSs) yet, therefore we present some application scenarios.

Application scenario:Clinical information systems

• Use of PDAs for personnel, RFID tags for equipment, etc.

• Process mining can be used to support evidence-based medicine.

http://www.handheldmed.com

Application scenario:Web services

• Are organizations working the way they should?• See BPEL4WS:

“Business processes can be described in two ways. Executable business processes model actual behavior of a participant in a business interaction. Business protocols, in contrast, use process descriptions that specify the mutually visible message exchange behavior of each of the parties involved in the protocol, without revealing their internal behavior. The process descriptions for business protocols are called abstract processes. BPEL4WS is meant to be used to model the behavior of both executable and abstract processes.” http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-bpel/

http://xml.ahg.com/

Application scenario:Wireless gallery information system

• Use of PDAs for providing content based on proximity.

• Process mining can be used to monitor the interests of visitors.

eDocent™

American Museum of the Moving Image www.ammi.org/site/extrapages/edoctext.html

Conclusion• Process mining seems to be interesting in the

context of Ubiquitous Mobile Systems (UMSs).• There are many challenges:

– Improving the algorithms (hidden/duplicate tasks, …)– Gathering the data– Visualizing the results– Etc.

• In this paper we “solved” one of the these problems: short loops.

• Join us at www.processmining.org