Process Mining: Tools Experience: Disco

This post summarizes my initial experience and impressions of the Disco process mining tool.

Installation

On Mac OS, the installation followed the normal pattern of downloading and double-clicking the disk image. Getting started required only a few minutes. Disco requires a registration key to get started. Acquiring the key was straight forward and painless.

Usage

Disco includes a Sandbox environment the pleasantly provides an introduction to the tool’s capabilities. The ‘lifesaver’ icon displays sticky notes directing you to various functions.

An intuitive graphical interface facilitates loading new log files by initially assigning data columns for recognition as a case identifier, an activity, a timestamp, a resource, or other information. After importing a log file, Disco immediately displays a process map and invites you to zoom in and adjust the level of detail displayed. Experimentation with the Frequency and Performance controls provides visibility into primary paths through the process map and the identification of long-duration steps. Animating the process map with only a few clicks reveals bottlenecks and pain points.

Summary

My “one word” description above is probably flavored by the fact that this was the first time I’ve seen the visualization of process execution through a process model.