Operational Support

Abstract

Most process-mining techniques work on ``post mortem'' event data, i.e., they analyze events that belong to cases that have already completed. Obviously, it is not possible to influence the execution of ``post mortem'' cases. Moreover, cases that are still in the pipeline cannot be guided on the basis of ``post mortem'' event data only. Today, however, many data sources are updated in (near) real-time and sufficient computing power is available to analyze events when they occur. Therefore, process mining should not be restricted to off-line analysis and can also be used for online operational support. This chapter broadens the scope of process mining to include online decision support. For example, for a running case the remaining flow time can be predicted and suitable actions can be recommended to minimize costs.