Deriving process models for workflow management systems from audit trails

Claim 1

A computerized method of automatically adapting a process-model of a business-process, said process-model comprising a multitude of activities being part of said business-process; said process-model defining all possible allowed sequences of activities of said business-process; said method of adapting comprising a pattern-collection-step, wherein said pattern-collection-step is based on a current-process-mode, and during said pattern-collection-step each activity being executed is recorded with an audit-trail by audit-trail-records, said audit-trail-records encompassing a process-model-instance-identification of a process-model-instance within said activity being executed; said audit-trail-records encompassing an activity-identification of said activity being executed; and said audit-trail-records encompassing an execution-interval of said activity being executed comprising a starting-time and a termination-time of said activity being executed; said method of adapting further comprising a pattern-analysis-step analyzing, after a predefined sampling period, said audit-trail-records and generating a next-process-model by determining, in a first step based on the current-process-model from the audit-trail-records with identical process-model-instance-identifications, activities, which are processed sequentially being recorded with non-overlapping execution-intervals, and activities, which are in processed in parallel being recorded with overlapping execution-intervals; and by adapting in a second step said current-process-model to generate a next-process-model by re-ordering those activities, allowed to be processed in parallel according to the current-process-model but actually having been executed sequentially only, as determined in said first step, into sequential execution order based on the time order of said execution-intervals.