IEEE Task Force on Process Mining

Annual meeting and discussion on the ICPM conference series

Wednesday, June 26th, 2019, 18:30 – 20:00 – ROOM – CLUB – LOUNGE 1

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining at ICPM 2019 in Aachen

Download as PDF: Minutes-IEEE-TFPM-meeting-June-2019

The annual meeting of the task force was co-located with the International Conference on Process Mining (ICPM). ICPM is the new flagship conference of the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining and an immediate success (437 participants). The rapid growth of the field and the new conference show that the activities related to the Task Force need to be unified and restructured. A key discussion point was the governance of the Task Force and its activities. Around 50 persons joined the meeting.

(1) Overview of the work of the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining (Wil van der Aalst)

Over 75 organizations are supporting the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining. Examples of activities have been:

  • Process Mining Manifesto (2012) (translated into 16 languages)
  • XES Standard: long-running process leading to an official IEEE standard
  • Challenges and Datasets

The main activities of the task force can be summarized by the following diagram.

Note that activities and membership are there to promote process mining in general and not a particular tool or research approach. The goal of this Task Force is to promote the research, development, education and understanding of process mining. More concretely, the goal is to: make end-users, developers, consultants, and researchers aware of the state-of-the-art in process mining, promote the use of process mining techniques and tools and stimulate new applications, play a role in standardization efforts for logging event data, the organization of tutorials, special sessions, workshops, panels, the organization of Conferences/Workshop with IEEE CIS Technical Co-Sponsorship, and publications in the form of special issues in journals, books, articles.

Organizations that really want to contribute are invited to join the task force.

 

(2) Reflecting on this year’s ICPM conference (Marcello La Rosa, Mieke Jans, Josep Carmona, Wil van der Aalst)

The first International Conference on Process Mining (ICPM 2019) in Aachen was a unique event and a milestone in the history of process mining (see https://icpmconference.org/2019/). Several presentations have been uploaded.  In total there were 437 participants (just ICPM and not counting the other two conferences): 147 scientists (34%), 100 software providers (23%), and 190 end users and consultants (43%).  The PC chairs explained the process and their experiences. What worked well: Community participation on short notice, Reviewing process (carved from the BPM model), Papers quality on par with other conferences, Local organization RWTH. What didn’t work well: Tight reviewing cycle & workload, Exploitative vs innovative papers (too critical reviews for new topics), IEEE proceedings effort, Fears of cannibalization, and Reserving time for contests in program.

During the discussion that followed input was collected for next year. ICPM participants also received an invitation to a questionnaire to collect more input.

 

(3) Preparations for ICPM 2020 in Padua  (Massimiliano de Leoni, Alessandro Sperduti, Boudewijn van Dongen, Moe Wynn, Montali Marco, and others)

Massimiliano presented next year’s conference. ICPM 2020 will take place in the beautiful scenery of the Botanic Garden, a UNESCO World Heritage, Oct 26-29, 2020, Padua, Italy. See https://icpmconference.org/2020/ for details.

Some of the ICPM 2020 chairs:

  • General Chairs: Massimiliano de Leoni, University of Padua (Italy) & Alessandro Sperduti, University of Padua (Italy)
  • Program Chairs: Boudewijn van Dongen, Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands), Marco Montali, Free University of Bolzano-Bozen (Italy), & Moe Thandar Wynn, Queensland University of Technology (Australia)
  • Industry Chairs: Roberto Carbone, HSPI SpA (Italy), Marc Kerremans, Gartner (Belgium), & Marcello La Rosa, The University of Melbourne (Australia)
  • Tool Demonstration Chairs: Chiara Di Francescomarino, Bruno Kessler Foundation (Italy), Jorge Munoz-Gama, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile), Jochen De Weerdt, KU Leuven (Belgium).
  • Workshop Chairs: Sander Leemans, Queensland University of Technology (Australia) & Henrik Leopold, Kühne Logistics University (Germany)

People that want to be involved (e.g., as PC member) were encouraged to contact the chairs as soon as possible.

 

(4) What’s next? Discussion on shaping the ICPM conferences series, other activities of the Task Force, and the governance of the ICPM conference and the Task Force (Wil van der Aalst, Mieke Jans, Josep Carmona, Marcello La Rosa, and Boudewijn van Dongen)

Based on the annual meeting in Sydney an inaugural steering committee was formed by Wil van der Aalst (chair of steering committee), Mieke Jans, Josep Carmona, Marcello La Rosa, and Boudewijn van Dongen. The goal is to broaden the committee with experienced people that really want contribute, identifying the different tasks of the task force, and discussing the governance. There was consensus to keep the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining, but this is also the entity managing the ICPM conference series (to avoid duplications).

Identification of activities done by the task force and the work that needs to be distributed

  • Activity: ICPM Conference
    • Organize our flagship conference, i.e., appoint PC chairs, select locations, discuss with organizers, act as a liaison between the different parties (including IEEE).
  • Activity: Membership management
    • Maintain e-mail list and manage the memberships (may change as it is now).
  • Activity: Website
    • Maintain the IEEE Task Force’s website. Create a new URL. Cross-linking with the ICPM website icpmconference.org.
    • This needs to be done by a team and is linked to many of the other activities.
  • Activity: PM Newsletter (new)
    • Create a newsletter (2-3 per year) with news on activities and case studies.
    • Is used to refresh the case study repository.
    • Distributed via the mailing list and other channels.
  • Activity:           LinkedIn group and other social media
    • Use the existing group or create a new LinkedIn group.
    • Avoid duplication of work and have “official channels”
    • Need to synchronize with George Varvaressos on this (needs to release control to make it an official channel, it cannot be both).
  • Activity: Contests and Awards
    • BPI Challenge
    • Process Discovery Contest
    • Conformance Checking Contest
    • Best PhD thesis
    • …
  • Activity: XES standardization and certification
    • A more active team is needed. Now most of the work is done by Eric Verbeek.
    • Avoid selfish behavior (standards are good for the field as a whole)
  • Activity: Data sets
    • Create and maintain open data sets
    • Linked to challenges
  • Activity: Other events (e.g., workshops)
    • Three types of workshops: (1) TF-ICPM workshops, (2) TF-non-ICPM workshops, and (3) TF-affiliated workshops.
    • Existing workshops (incomplete):
      • Workshop on Business Process Intelligence and Workshop Process-Oriented Data Science for Healthcare at BPM
      • Algorithms and Theories for the Analysis of Event Data (ATAED) at Petri nets
    • We need also a presence at IEEE CIS conferences, e.g., International Conference on Data Science, Technology and Applications (DATA), IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI), IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC)
  • Activity: Other networks
    • Create and maintain with other networks (e.g., regional or specialized).
    • Example: SRC on Process Mining, but for example also PODS4H (Process-Oriented Data Science for Healthcare)?

Steering Committee and Governance

Inaugural steering committee

  • Wil van der Aalst (chair)
  • Mieke Jans
  • Josep Carmona
  • Marcello La Rosa
  • Boudewijn van Dongen

The goal is to grow this to approx. 10 members and to create bylaws. These should ensure transparency, stability, and increased activity.

There should be a clear rotation scheme (e.g., 3 years + 3 years). Ad-hoc at first. In steady-state people should be elected and there should be a continuous renewal. People can apply before August 31st 2019 by sending an e-mail to the members of the inaugural SC.

The inaugural SC will meet at BPM and decide on the first additions (the goal is to add 5 more members).

 

Hard requirements to be part of the SC

  • Willingness to do tasks for the community. The applicant should indicate which of the activities (s)he will to do and how much time is available for this.
  • Firm promise to attend ICPM and the Task Force meetings each year (SC members that do not attend will be removed).
  • Only senior researchers/experts with a proven track record should apply (not for junior researchers).

We aim for a balanced SC composition:

  • Diversity, as of:
  • Geographic balance (also representing the countries with many activities).
  • Topic balance (process mining is a broad field with many sub-disciplines, also ranging from theoretical to more applied).
  • Gender balance.

Application

  • Send to icpm_sc@lists.unimelb.edu.au before August 31st 2019
  • Include:
    • A short motivation letter.
    • A detailed indication of the tasks you would like to perform (see list given before). You commit to work!
    • Showing commitment and willingness to attend all ICPM conferences and task force meetings.
    • A CV showing a good track record in process mining

 

(5) Closing

All are again invited to ICPM 2020 in Padua. The mailing list will be used to update task force members regularly.

 

The IEEE Task Force on Process Mining was established in October 2009. Over 75 organizations are supporting the IEEE Task Force which aims to promote the research, development, education, and understanding of process mining (see https://www.win.tue.nl/ieeetfpm/). The Task Force has initiated the Process Mining Manifesto, lead the development of the IEEE XES standard for storing event logs, distributed many publically available event logs, developed promotional material (videos, case studies, etc.), created various competitions and wards, and organized numerous workshops over the last decade (e.g., the BPI workshop series). This first International Conference on Process Mining (ICPM 2019) is another initiative of the Task Force. The main topic of this year‘s annual Task Force meeting is to discuss the future of the ICPM conference series and the governance of the conference and the Task Force. An inaugural steering committee composed of Wil van der Aalst (chair), Marcello La Rosa, Mieke Jans, Josep Carmona, and Boudewijn van Dongen has been formed to create the ICPM conference series. The goal is to collect input from the process mining community. Everyone is welcome to join the meeting. Moreover, organizations that are willing to help to promote process mining as a discipline are welcome to join the Task Force.

Agenda
  • 18:30-18:45 Overview of the work of the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining (Wil van der Aalst)
  • 18:45-19:00 Reflecting on this year‘s ICPM conference (Marcello La Rosa, Mieke Jans, Josep Carmona, Wil van der Aalst)
  • 19:00-19:15 Preparations for ICPM 2020 in Padova (Massimiliano de Leoni, Alessandro Sperduti, Boudewijn van Dongen, Moe Wynn, and Montali Marco)
  • 19:15-19:45 Discussion on shaping the ICPM conferences series, other activities of the Task Force, and the governance of the ICPM conference and the Task Force
  • 19:45-20:00 Closing

(The IEEE Task Force on Process Mining meeting is open to all interested in process mining.)