Process Mining

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Process Mining

Last updated Apr 17, 2024

Create new app wizard

In the Process Mining portal, you can easily create new apps. When you select the Create new app button, a wizard opens that guides you through the process of creating a new app step-by-step. When you leave Create new app wizard at any step, the current state is saved. You can continue creating the app with the state you left the wizard before.

Scenarios

Creating a Process app

Create new app
Select app template
Define the app properties
Select the data source
Select the process model
Finish the app creation

Creating an Automation app

Create new app
Select app template
Define the app properties
Select the automated process
Select the process model
Finish the app creation

Creating a new app

1. In the Process Mining portal, go to the Development tab, and select Create new app.

Note:

If this is your first app, you can select Create new app on the Welcome to Process Mining page.

You will be re-directed to the Development tab.

A wizard starts and the Select app template step is displayed, where you can select an app template to be used for your app. See the illustration below.

Selecting the app template

You can choose to use an existing app template as a starting point for a new app.

See App Templates for an overview of the available app templates.

1. Select the Create app button on the tile representing the application template you want to use as a base for your new app.

The Basic details step is displayed with the default information from the process app type you selected.

Defining the app properties

1. Edit the name to define a unique name for the new process app in the App name field.

Note: If an app with the name you enter already exists for your tenant a message is displayed, and the Save & Next button is disabled.

2. If desired, edit the description in the Description field.

3. Select Save & Next.

Note:

It can happen that you enter a name for an app that already exists but that you do not see in the All process apps list. In this case, it can be an app for which you do not have View permission.

See the illustration below.

The Data source step is displayed.

Selecting the data source

You can use a sample dataset, upload a dataset with .tsv files, or load data using an extractor. The data is ingested after you have created the new process app.

Important:

For performance and security reasons, it is strongly recommended to use a small dataset for app development and testing data transformations.

The development dataset is used for testing the data transformations. It does not affect the data displayed in the dashboards of the published process app.

Once your app is ready to be used by business users, you can publish the app and ingest new data for use in the published process app.

Use Sample Data

1. Select the Use sample data option button.

2. Select Save & Next.

Note: The Use sample data option is only enabled if sample data is available for the process app.

Upload a Dataset with .tsv or .csv Files

It is also possible to upload a dataset using .tsv files, or .csv files.

Warning:

For large amounts of data, it is recommended to use CData Sync or Theobald Xtract Universal (for SAP) to upload data.

You can also use the DataUploader to upload data files up to 5TB each directly into a Process Mining process app.

Note: When you create a new process app, always make sure that the data is in the required format for the app template that you use to create a new app. See App Templates.

Note: Table names and field names are case-sensitive. Always make sure that the field names (column headers) in your dataset match the field names listed in the input tables and that the file names match the table names.

Important:

Make sure the .csv or .tsv files have the suffix _raw.

Follow these steps to upload data files.

1. Select the Upload data option button.

2. Drag and drop one or more files that contain the data for the process app, or select to select the files from your computer.

3. Select Save & Next.

Upload Data Using an Extractor

Note: When loading data using an extractor, the data is loaded into a blob store. Therefore, when loading data, Process Mining Automation Cloud^TM cannot check the IP-address. This means that if IP Restriction is set up for your tenant, it will not be enforced when loading data using an extractor from a machine that is not in a trusted IP range, and the data is uploaded to Process Mining.

1. Select the Upload data using extractor option button.

2. Select Save & Next.

Note:

You can copy the details for use in the extractor in the Upload data using extractor step later in the app creation process.

SAS uri

When loading data using an extractor, you use the SAS uri when setting up a destination connection. See Create a destination connection

End of upload API

When loading data using an extractor, you use the End of upload API in the post-event of in the extraction job to signal that the extraction was finished. See Create a job.

Selecting the automated process

When selecting an Automation template, data is loaded from the Orchestrator Robot Logs of your process. In the Automated process step a list of processes that are available for your tenant and for which you have access in Orchestrator based on your folder permissions is displayed.

Note: Processes that do not have data are indicated with the label "No data".

1. Locate the folder where your automation is stored. When you select the folder, the available automated processes are displayed.

Note:

Only automated processess that have been executed in the last 30 days, can be selected for the Automation template. If you select a process that has not been executed in the last 30 days, a message is displayed indicating that no data is available.

Note:

Only automated processes that contain up to 1000 activities can be selected for the Automation template. If the process contains more than 1000 activities, a message is displayed.

3. Select the process you want to monitor using the Automation template, and select Next.

Selecting the process model

You can select the type of process model to be used for the process app.

Attention:

Discover process model and Import BPMN model introduce detailed semantic events for exclusive, parallel, and loop behaviors that enhance process precision but may affect app scalability. As a result, this might impact the maximum number of real events supported in a Process mining app.

Directly follows graph

The "directly follows" relationship represents the order in which activities occur in a process. It is based on event logs that contain records of activities performed during the execution of a process. By analyzing the event logs, Process Mining techniques can identify which activities are typically executed one after another. Between these two activities, an edge is defined as A➝B.

If, for example, paths A→B and C→D in a process can be performed in parallel, the activities of the two paths can occur in the event log in any order. In the "directly follows graph" approach, these events will not be considered to run in parallel, and the resulting process flow can be the following: A➝C➝B➝D.

A Discover Process Model or a BPMN process model however will take parallel stuctures into account.

1. Select Directly follows graph if you want to use this as a process model type for your process app.

2. Select Save & Review.

Discover process model

Discovering a process model allows you to have a better understanding of your process structure. By analyzing the whole process (the whole event log) with advanced process mining techniques, activities that happen in parallel, are part of a decision, or are part of a more complex loop are automatically discovered. These relationships are called the process semantics.

Below is an overview of the process semantic types.

Semantic node type	Description	Visual representation
Parallel gateway (AND)	Represents two or more branches that happen in parallel.
Exclusive choice gateway (XOR)	Represents an exclusive choice (decision point) between two or more branches.
Loop gateway	Represents a repeatable sub-process with one loop body path and one or more rework paths.

1. Select Discover process model if you want to use this as a process model type for your process app.

2. Select Save & Review.

Import BPMN model

Select Import BPMN model if you want to import your own BPMN 2.0 model and use it as a process model for your process app.

Note:
WIth the BPMN model, advanced process algorithms will map your event log data on top of the BPMN model, allowing you to analyze how the BPMN model and your data relate.
Drag and drop the .bpmn file that contains the BPMN 2.0 model you want to import.
When the file is successfully imported, the Save & Review button will be enabled.
Select Save & Review to finish the import of the BPMN model.

Tip:

If you want to use a different BPMN model after you created the process app, you can import a BPMN model in Process manager.

BPMN model requirements

Below is an overview of the requirements to successfully import a BPMN 2.0 model for use in Process Mining.

General requirements for the BPMN model

The BPMN must adhere to the BPMN 2.0 standard.
The BPMN must contain a single process definition.
The BPMN can only contain supported elements.
All nodes in the BPMN should have an id.
The BPMN model should contain no more than 999 nodes.

Supported BPMN elements

The following BPMN elements ares supported:

Start events
End events
Tasks
Exclusive choice gateways
Parallel gateways
Sequence flows

Task and flow requirements

Requirement	Example
A start event must be defined, and there can only be one start event.
An end event must be defined, and there can only be one end event.
At least one activity task must be defined.
There must be at least two sequence flows defined for the BMPM model.
The tasks must have unique labels.
All sequence flows must have a source and a target.
Each task must have a single incoming, and a single outgoing sequence flow.
The start event only has a single outgoing edge.
The end event only has a single incoming edge.
All nodes and sequence flows in the BPMN are connected in a single model.

Gateway requirements

The gateways in the BPMN must form pairs. Each pair has an opening gateway, which splits the process flow into multiple process flows. Each pair has a closing gateway, which joins the split process flows into a single flow. This structure is called a block. The flows inside a block may contain other, nested blocks. However, the only flows to enter and exit the flows within a block, are via the split and join gateways.

Below is an example of a BPMN model with gateway pairs, forming blocks. The blocks are highlighted.

Requirement	Example
Each gateway is either a split or a join gateway.
A split gateway has a single incoming edge, and at least 2 outgoing edges.
A join gateway has at least 2 incoming edges, and a single outgoing edge.
For every split gateway, there is a corresponding join gateway of the same type, and vice versa.
Every split-join gateway pair and the elements between them are a single-entry-single-exit component: a model component that has only a single entry edge and a single exit edge.
Each path from a split gateway its corresponding join gateway must also be a single-entry-single-exit.
There cannot be any direct sequence flows between corresponding splitting and joining parallel gateways.
Every exclusive choice split-join gateway pair that describes a loop flow to a previous point in the process cannot have an empty main path and an empty redo path, as this allows for indefinite looping without a task being executed.

Finishing the app creation

Process apps

1. Review the app details.

2. Select Create app.

The process app is created and will be displayed in the Process apps in development list. A progress bar is displayed to indicate the progress of the data ingestion of your process app.

When the data ingestion is completed, the new app will be published and displayed in the Process apps in development list.

You can now customize the app and edit the transformations to your needs. See Customizing process apps.

Important:

The app is in development mode and only available in the development environment. To make the app available to business users, you must publish the app. See Publishing process apps.

Automation apps

1. Review the app details.

2. Select Create and publish app.

The automation app will be published and listed on the Process apps tab.

Important:

Automation apps will show up as read-only apps in the Development tab. The following actions are available from the Actions menu for an automation app: