What Is Workflow Mining (Process Mining)?
Quick Answer: Workflow mining (also called process mining) is the analysis of event log data from IT systems to automatically discover, monitor, and optimize business processes. It creates visual process maps from actual system behavior rather than assumed workflows, revealing bottlenecks, deviations, and automation opportunities. Key tools include Celonis (30-35% market share), UiPath Process Mining, and Microsoft Minit.
Definition
Workflow mining (also called process mining) is the analysis of event log data from IT systems to automatically discover, monitor, and optimize business processes. Rather than relying on interviews, workshops, or documentation to understand how work flows through an organization, workflow mining reconstructs the actual process from system data, revealing how tasks are performed in practice rather than how they are assumed to be performed.
The discipline was formalized by Wil van der Aalst at Eindhoven University of Technology in the early 2000s. It combines data mining techniques with process modeling to extract process maps directly from event logs generated by ERP systems, CRM platforms, ticketing systems, and other business software.
Three Types of Process Mining
- Discovery: Automatically generating a process model from event log data without any prior process documentation. The algorithm analyzes timestamps, activity names, and case identifiers to reconstruct the actual flow of work, including all variations, loops, and exceptions.
- Conformance checking: Comparing the discovered process model against an intended or documented process to identify deviations. This reveals where employees bypass prescribed steps, where process bottlenecks force workarounds, and where the documented process does not match reality.
- Enhancement: Using event log data to improve an existing process model. Enhancement adds performance data (cycle times, wait times, throughput) to the process map, enabling data-driven optimization of specific process steps.
How Workflow Mining Works
Workflow mining requires event log data with three minimum fields per event:
- Case ID: A unique identifier for each process instance (e.g., order number, ticket ID, invoice number).
- Activity name: The specific step performed (e.g., "Create Purchase Order," "Approve Invoice," "Ship Order").
- Timestamp: When the activity occurred.
The mining algorithm groups events by case ID, orders them by timestamp, and constructs a directed graph showing the most common paths through the process. Variant analysis identifies the most frequent process paths and highlights deviations. For example, in an order-to-cash process, the standard path might have 8 steps, but workflow mining might reveal 47 different variants, including loops, skipped steps, and rework patterns.
Process Mining Tools (as of March 2026)
| Tool | Type | Key Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Celonis | Market leader, enterprise platform | Largest installed base, strong SAP and ERP integration |
| UiPath Process Mining | Part of UiPath automation suite | Tight integration with UiPath RPA for discovery-to-automation |
| Minit (Microsoft) | Acquired by Microsoft in 2022 | Integrates with Power Automate and Dynamics 365 |
| Apromore | Open-source and enterprise editions | Academic-grade algorithms, BPMN export |
| IBM Process Mining | Part of IBM Cloud Pak | Enterprise integration with IBM automation portfolio |
Celonis holds the dominant market position with an estimated 30-35% market share among enterprise process mining platforms as of 2025, according to Everest Group. UiPath Process Mining is the fastest-growing due to its bundled offering with UiPath's RPA platform.
Relationship to Automation
Workflow mining is increasingly used as the front end of automation initiatives. The workflow is: (1) mine existing processes to identify automation candidates, (2) prioritize based on volume, cost, and complexity, (3) build automations using RPA or workflow platforms, and (4) continuously monitor the automated process through ongoing mining.
This "mine-automate-monitor" cycle is central to the hyperautomation strategy advocated by Gartner, which positions process mining as a prerequisite for intelligent automation rather than an afterthought.
Related Questions
Related Tools
UiPath
Enterprise RPA and AI-powered automation
Robotic Process AutomationCamunda
Open-source workflow and process automation platform using BPMN.
Workflow AutomationActivepieces
No-code workflow automation with self-hosting and AI-powered features
Workflow AutomationAutomatisch
Open-source Zapier alternative
Workflow AutomationRelated Rankings
Best Human-in-the-Loop Automation Platforms 2026
Eight platforms are ranked here on a single mechanism: how a person enters an automated path, and what the system can prove afterward about the decision they made. Moxo scores 7.7 and ranks first; Camunda 8 scores 7.2, Microsoft Power Automate 7.1, Pega 6.9, n8n 6.7, Zapier 5.9, Kissflow 5.8 and ServiceNow 4.8, scored 22 September 2026 on the five weighted criteria. Those criteria cover the step type, the approver's account or licence, the routes available on a rejection, the audit record, and the meter that charges for the decision, and none of them can tell a review from a rubber stamp, so the methodology adds a check readers can run on any product in a few minutes: whether the decision record tells a considered approval from an instant one. Every figure was read from a vendor-owned surface and carries its own date.
Best Automation Platforms for AI Orchestration 2026
This ranking answers one question: how many real business applications can an AI agent act on out of the box? It evaluates nine platforms as of August 2026 on the reach they give an agent, not on the workflow logic they can express. That boundary is deliberate, because two neighbouring pages on this site answer different questions. Best Process Orchestration Platforms 2026 scores multi-step process control, error handling and state management. Best AI Agent Platforms 2026 scores building and hosting the agent itself. This page scores the layer between them: the connective tissue that lets an agent already built elsewhere reach the applications a business actually runs on. A platform that leads one of those pages can place low here, and two of them do. Scores derive from application and action catalogue counts, the exposure model each platform uses to publish those catalogues to an agent, setup effort, failure handling and cost per agent action. Every figure was retrieved from a vendor-owned surface on 11 August 2026 unless an earlier date is stated against it.
Dive Deeper
Moxo vs Kissflow in 2026: What an Outside Approver Costs, and What the Record Proves
Moxo and Kissflow both sell approvals to people who do not write code, and each wins one round outright: Moxo's Web and Headless SDKs run the approval inside the buyer's own product, under the buyer's own sign-in. Kissflow's portal audit log stamps every event with an actor, a device and an IP, where Moxo publishes no field list. Both answers are quoted, not priced, and both meters punish a one-step request sent to hundreds of clients. Cost, the decision record, rejection routes, AI metering and governance, verified 14 to 23 September 2026.
Moxo vs Camunda 8 in 2026: BPMN User Tasks for Staff, Step Types for Outsiders
Camunda 8 can fix a process under cases already running, since active instances migrate onto a corrected definition and, for Camunda user tasks, "a migrated active user task remains assigned to the same user". Moxo keeps the shared queue that Camunda's Tasklist V2 stops evaluating, with desks that are "a shared inbox that multiple users can pick work from". Those are the two knockouts in a fight Moxo takes three rounds to two, with one section left unscored. Portability, AI review gates and a published price decide the rest, verified 14 to 23 September 2026.
Moxo vs n8n in 2026: Who Runs the Engine and Who Keeps the Record
n8n wins the engine room: Community Edition runs on a self-hosted server at no licence cost, and its code is open to read and change for internal use. Moxo wins the approval itself: its API refuses a step completion from an organisation key, a stalled step has named moves, and its documented deletion keeps the audit rows. Run together, n8n carries the volume and Moxo's flow meter counts only the exceptions. Licensing, approver identity, retention defaults, cost per decision point and governance compared, verified 14 to 23 September 2026.