From Signals to Events: A Maturity-Based Perspective on IoT-Enabled Process Mining

To bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds, we need systems that can effectively transform reality into computable signals. This perspective paper examines key challenges in such transformation related to the gap between fine-grained sensor signals and activity-level events used in process intelligence tools. We examine these challenges along two perspectives. The first perspective considers two ways on how sensor data is entered into the event log—either sensor readings are abstracted to create new event information, or event information is already present, and sensor data enriches it with new context. The second perspective concerns the maturity of the operating process itself, considering how process maturity may influence the feasibility, reliability and potential usefulness of IoT integration. Integration is therefore not only a technical question of how sensor data becomes process events, but also a prior question of whether and when it is justified. We propose a conceptual perspective on this relationship and identify candidate assessment areas that could form a basis for a future IoT-enabled process mining maturity model; these areas are not empirically validated in this study. We close by considering auditable event logs as a basis for accountability as autonomous systems become more widespread.