Simplifying discovered process models in a controlled manner

Process models discovered from a process log using process mining tend to be complex and have problems balancing between overfitting and underfitting. An overfitting model allows for too little behavior as it just permits the traces in the log and no other trace. An underfitting model allows for too much behavior as it permits traces that are significantly different from the behavior seen in the log. This paper presents a post-processing approach to simplify discovered process models while controlling the balance between overfitting and underfitting. The discovered process model, expressed in terms of a Petri net, is unfolded into a branching process using the event log. Subsequently, the resulting branching process is folded into a simpler process model capturing the desired behavior. Keywords: Process mining; Model simplification; Petri nets; Branching processes