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P\(^3\)-Folder: Optimal Model Simplification for Improving Accuracy in Process Performance Prediction

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Business Process Management (BPM 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9850))

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Abstract

Operational process models such as generalised stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs) are useful when answering performance queries on business processes (e.g. ‘how long will it take for a case to finish?’). Recently, methods for process mining have been developed to discover and enrich operational models based on a log of recorded executions of processes, which enables evidence-based process analysis. To avoid a bias due to infrequent execution paths, discovery algorithms strive for a balance between over-fitting and under-fitting regarding the originating log. However, state-of-the-art discovery algorithms address this balance solely for the control-flow dimension, neglecting possible over-fitting in terms of performance annotations. In this work, we thus offer a technique for performance-driven model reduction of GSPNs, using structural simplification rules. Each rule induces an error in performance estimates with respect to the original model. However, we show that this error is bounded and that the reduction in model parameters incurred by the simplification rules increases the accuracy of process performance prediction. We further show how to find an optimal sequence of applying simplification rules to obtain a minimal model under a given error budget for the performance estimates. We evaluate the approach with a real-world case in the healthcare domain, showing that model simplification indeed yields significant improvements in time prediction accuracy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/ArikSenderovich/P3Folding/.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), grant WE 4891/1-1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Arik Senderovich, Alexander Shleyfman, Avigdor Gal & Avishai Mandelbaum

  2. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Matthias Weidlich

Authors
  1. Arik Senderovich
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  2. Alexander Shleyfman
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  3. Matthias Weidlich
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  4. Avigdor Gal
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  5. Avishai Mandelbaum
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Correspondence to Matthias Weidlich .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Marcello La Rosa

  2. DFKI, Universität des Saarlandes DFKI, Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany

    Peter Loos

  3. Universidad Politècnica de Valencia , Valencia, Spain

    Oscar Pastor

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Senderovich, A., Shleyfman, A., Weidlich, M., Gal, A., Mandelbaum, A. (2016). P\(^3\)-Folder: Optimal Model Simplification for Improving Accuracy in Process Performance Prediction. In: La Rosa, M., Loos, P., Pastor, O. (eds) Business Process Management. BPM 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9850. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45348-4_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45348-4_24

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