7. Process Model Matching Using Event-Log Information

Alignments between processes provide an important basis for a variety of application scenarios and techniques. These alignments are, among others, used for the detection of differences between models [148], the harmonization of process model variants [149], process querying [123], and the propagation of process changes [265]. The accuracy and, therefore, usefulness of such techniques is highly dependent on the correctness and completeness of the alignments that are established by process model matching techniques. However, despite the existence of a plethora of matching techniques, it has been shown that their results leave room for improvement [54]. A possible cause for this is that existing process model matching techniques focus exclusively on information related to the specification of processes, typically by just considering the information contained in process models themselves. Therefore, they ignore information that relates to the actual execution of the processes, as captured in event logs. These logs provide valuable information on data attributes, event durations, and other aspects specifically associated with the enactment of a process.