Process Mining Challenges Perceived by Analysts: An Interview Study

Process mining analysts need to work with event data to discover (business) processes, interpret results and report meaningful conclusions. Although process mining tools are constantly enhanced and advanced techniques are developed to enrich the functional scope in the field, little is known about the individual needs of analysts and the issues they face while conducting process mining projects. This paper aims to close this gap by uncovering perceived challenges occurring in practice. Based on an interview study with 41 participants, we identify and describe 23 challenges, spanning different project phases and directly affecting the work of process mining analysts. We discuss whether methods and techniques exist that can help to overcome these challenges and where further research is needed to devise new solutions and integrate existing ones better into process mining practice.