Getting the Data

Abstract

Process mining is impossible without proper event logs. This chapter describes the information that should be present in such event logs. Depending on the process mining technique used, these requirements may vary. The challenge is to extract such data from a variety of data sources, e.g., databases, flat files, message logs, transaction logs, ERP systems, and document management systems. When merging and extracting data, both syntax and semantics play an important role. Moreover, depending on the questions one seeks to answer, different views on the available data are needed. Process mining, like any other data-driven analysis approach, needs to deal with data quality problems. We discuss typical data quality challenges encountered in reality. The insights provided in this chapter help to get the event data assumed to be present in later chapters.