A Conceptual Framework for Resource Analysis in Process Mining

Resource analysis is an emerging branch in process mining that aims to understand behavioral and structural aspects of resources in business processes. A problem of current resource analysis is its fragmentation. The spectrum of corresponding process mining techniques is diverse but scattered, with contributions often focusing on one or the other specific aspects. An overarching framework that could organize resource analysis, tie it to theoretical foundations, and, in turn, inform the development of new analytical methods is missing. In this work, we address this research problem by conducting a systematic literature review to organize the scattered landscape of the state-of-the-art resource analysis methods in process mining. Our work is guided by the question of what resource-related organizational and behavioral patterns can be analyzed with current methods. We classify the methods according to two aspects: what type of phenomenon was analyzed and what design principles were utilized in the development. Our findings highlight that most resource analysis methods in process mining are data-driven, developed to solve a specific business problem, or loosely based on resource analysis concepts from other disciplines. Some good examples of techniques defined for theoretical questions give directions for future research.