Conformance Checking using Formal Methods

Conformance checking is an important process mining task; it aims to detect inconsistencies between the model of a process and its corresponding execution log. This paper proposes an approach in which it is given a declarative description, represented by a set of temporal logic properties, for the process model; the process discovered from the log is described by means of a process algebra, and conformance checking is performed through the model checking of the discovered process against the properties. To discover the process we consider additional information contained in the log and associated with the single events. Moreover, since discovered processes tend, in general, to be very large and complex, we look for a reduced process containing only the parts relevant for the properties satisfaction. In this way we reduce both the space needed for the discovered process and the time complexity for the properties verification.