The human side of Process Mining
By having the privilege of following several attempts and also real implementations of Process Mining projects, I’d like to share my vision about the key role that humans play in this area.
Process Mining industry urgently needs fast academia skill development.
To Learn - There are several skills required to deal with this type of technology: combining functional and technical system analysis knowledge, data science and digital process management.
To Unlearn - Management schools should break the standards of traditional approaches where they teach how to manage business performance based on management indicators plenty of human bias. This trend is closely related with “command & control” management models focuses on the perception of top decision makers, however, data science, artificial intelligence and suggestive Process Mining technology bring new challenges that guide top decision to a factual basis . It will take some time to deal with that issue where technology will not always bring the answers that humans want. However, it took many years to learn management models based on “command & control”, traditional approaches to process mapping and the use of BI technology where KPIs based on perceptions are configured as the best practice.
Decision Making transformation - It is natural that the decision process to buy Process Mining technology takes some time, as the market is not yet mature enough to understand how to make the best use of this new approach to running the business based on how it really works. On the other hand, implementing Process Mining involves several obstacles to arise because organic weaknesses in the daily basis of companies will become evident. The transformation of insights into actions is a sign of maturity, but it takes time considering the following needed conditions: robust sponsorship from top management, good alignment of the first lines and engagement of the operational teams. To achieve success with Process Mining, it is necessary to carry out differentiated work at various levels of the organization: top management with agility to decide with solid base of facts and less perceptions, the first lines of management aligned to progressively increase confidence in this different way of managing processes and the business teams involved as a new community available to transform the business without feeling directly threatened.
