Advancing Process Audits With Process Mining: A Systematic Review of Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

This systematic literature review focuses on the research area of process audits and explores the potential of process mining techniques for their enhancement. Traditional process audits, being manual and sample-based, heavily rely on auditors' expertise and preferences. With the emergence of process mining (PM), there exists an opportunity to improve traditional process audits. However, prior to initiating a PM project specifically for audits, it is crucial to understand the benefits and challenges associated with the implementation. Through a systematic analysis of research articles from six reputable scholarly literature indexing databases, this review reveals how integrating PM into the auditing landscape introduces automation, transparency, and efficiency in addition to overcoming the limitations of traditional process audits. The findings of this review provide valuable insights to identify the benefits of PM-based audits and comprehend the challenges that must be addressed to fully realize the potential of PM techniques in process audits.