Process mining techniques allow for extracting information from event logs. Process mining takes existing data records from your IT systems, extracts the business process (and its variations) and automatically generates understandable visualizations of the business process. Because existing IT records are the basis for process mining, objective visualizations of the real business process are obtained. The following video gives a short introduction on process mining:

See the following ressources for further information:

• http://www.processmining.org: Information on process mining by the Process Mining Group (Eindhoven University of Technology)
• Process Mining: Discovery, Conformance and Enhancement of Business Processes by W.M.P. van der Aalst, Springer Verlag, 2011: http://www.springer.com/computer/database+management+%26+information+retrieval/book/978-3-642-19344-6