Process Mining—a technology and technique that Gartner just called “early mainstream” in one of their last reports.

But many people still don’t know exactly how to approach this thing. They listen to the vendors talking about technical integrations and all the fancy features, which—to be honest—can be pretty overwhelming for someone who is just looking at it.

That is why Roland wrote his second book about “Successful Process Mining Projects,” which will be released in a bit more than a week from now on Sep. 15. It is full of real-life experiences and advice for the newbie who tries to make sense of all the new terms and possibilities.

To introduce you to the content and approach, we recorded an episode talking about the book while J-M tried to be the tough investigative journalist that he wants to become—spoiler alert, there were still some softball questions 😉

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Roland’s second book, “Successful Process Mining Projects,” is a follow-up to his first, “Successful Architecture Implementation.” It focuses on the measurement and analysis phase of the process and solution lifecycle.
• The book was written to address the need for guidance in process mining, as Roland observed that many large organizations have dabbled in the technology without widespread adoption or success.
• It aims to serve a wider audience, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and provides a neutral, experience-based perspective on the topic.
• Roland presents a six-step process for successful process mining projects, which he recommends doing in short, five-week iterations to build momentum and demonstrate value quickly.
• The six steps are: 1) Develop a strategy, 2) Extract data, 3) Create a data model, 4) Create a reference model, 5) Perform the analysis, and 6) Define process improvements.
• The book uses a fictitious case study about a medical device company called “Heartbeat” to demonstrate how to apply these steps in a real-world scenario.
• A key aspect of the process is the “aha moment” when a client sees their discovered process for the first time, which can reveal surprising truths and lead to an emotional reaction.
• Included with the book are free resources, such as all the graphics from the book, a checklist to guide projects, and the data and project files from the case study.
• These freebies are intended to act as an “accelerator” for readers, helping them get started with their projects.

The book will be available on many marketplaces (Amazon, Apple, Google, etc.) but is also available in our webshop at whatsyourbaseline.gumroad.com.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

We are hundreds of years into thinking about how we do work (insert your philosopher of choice here: Smith, Marx, Plato, etc.), but I get the impression that the most common style is “muddling through.”

But why is that? Why has the concept of an Integrated Management System (IMS) not taken hold in many organizations? Is it too complicated? Too much effort? Not worth it?
Even though I doubt that anyone will deny the benefits of an organized, integrated, and streamlined way of producing your product and value for your customers, it requires a certain amount of maturity to stand up an IMS.

Vassiliki built her experience through numerous operational excellence projects that she has led or participated in. Her strongest competencies include identifying opportunities, specifying and managing customized optimization initiatives within large organizations, usually including specialized process analysis to raise BPM awareness, proposing digitization interventions, and applying change scenarios.

She has invested in building her expertise in enterprise architecture methodologies and practices, facilitating process performance-based optimization, optimal systems & data strategy implementation, and compliance with GRC frameworks & practices.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Vassiliki's background
• What is an Integrated Management System (IMS)?
• Benefits of an IMS for an organization
• Who needs to be involved?
• IMS in the era of AI
• Key topics of an IMS explored
• Real-world project examples (telco and banking)
• Success factors when implementing and operating an IMS

Vassiliki can be reached via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilikispentzou1/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

Having lived in two cultures, it is so interesting to see how people cope with big problems. Climate change and sustainability are some of the biggest issues that we have to deal with in our lifetimes, and I see reactions from denial to aimless “do-gooder” activity.

But how do you improve this situation and solve the problem to get to more sustainable business practices? Well, process management (and especially the flavor of “Green BPM”) to the rescue.

This week we are speaking with Katharina Paulick, who is a creative, engaged, and dynamic professional in life sciences, lab automation, and machine learning. She works in a Green BPM consulting firm and is the right expert for our topic.

Katharina’s objective is to help create a sustainable Industry 4.0, and she stumbled (and then dove deep into) process management a few years ago.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Katharina’s background
• The topic of “Green BPM” and why it is important from economical, ecological, etc., up to regulatory requirements
• The dimensions of Green BPM from economical, ecological, etc., up to regulatory requirements
• The limitations of regulatory approvals of processes and how they can limit process execution
• Why is there resistance against green practices?
• Katharina’s approach to process analysis and figuring out the needed changes
• The challenge (and benefits) of working as an external person without the detailed background of the process
• What are the recommendations when you want to implement your sustainable BPM program?

If you’d like to reach out to Katharina, simply connect with her on LinkedIn or on Mastodon (@katharinaxxx@social.tchncs.de)

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

We are back with our first episode of the brand-new season 9 of the podcast—and we are starting right into the topic of these days: AI … well, the AI hype that is out there. And we are discussing what you can do to avoid falling into the trap of falling for that hype.

Our guest today is Maxwell Smith, who I had the pleasure of working with in a past life. He has years of experience in product management and product marketing in the BPM space with an IT background.

Max is a detail-oriented analytical thinker who enjoys empathizing with customers' problems and bringing solutions to market through products and positioning. The attention to detail is always contextualized with the larger vision of the product. The key success factor is his passion for tech and understanding of people's perception of it.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Max' background
• A look at the different forms of AI (and their benefits and drawbacks)
• How to see through "AI-washing"
• Guiding questions to help folks to see if the vendor is really using AI
• Secondary questions/guidelines to consider if AI seems to be legit in a vendor's pitch
• Other concerns to look out for when implementing AI-supported technology

Max can be reached on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwell-smith-1b612b83/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

Soooooo … We're a grown-up adult podcast now, and we're approaching our season 9. (Oh, so you claim.) If season 8 was great, will season 9 just be fine? More than fine. The world might be in chaos, but we are a safe harbor. Come join us, full of good friends, good cheer, and excellence in BPM and EA.

And of course, even we are changing. So we resisted, for example, the AI topic for long enough. And I think it matured to a point where it's actually worth talking about. Get ready to hear our thoughts and best practices from our rogues gallery of guests. So join us as we continue our journey together, kicking off season 9 of What's Your Baseline? next Monday, July 28, 2025. And we'll see you… in the next one.

Today we have our last “What's Your Baseline?” short during our little summer break. And this time we're looking at something special.

This is a Shorts about APQC and we had a long episode with Moritz Berger about what that framework is and all of those things. Moritz put in the APQC reference framework into a tool called The Brain.

What I really like with that and the short is mostly a demonstration of what he did and we're talking about what to take in care of when using APQC. What he did was, the tool is not linear; it's not folders and models, etc., but it's connected nodes. And this is where I think the process modeling tools should go.

Anyway, enjoy the show.

(And here are the show notes from the initial release)

This is another What's Your Baseline? Shorts episode and we are following up with the guest from our last episode, Moritz Berger.

Moritz took the APQC Process Classification Framework and imported it into “The Brain” to visualize the breakdown and connectivity of processes to each other. Since this Shorts consists mostly of a demonstration, you might want to watch at it on Spotify, YouTube, or on our website.

And if you like to click through the Brain for yourself, please go here: ⁠⁠https://bra.in/3qzgr6⁠⁠.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to ⁠⁠⁠hello@whatsyourbaseline.com⁠⁠⁠ or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe.⁠

This week we release another What's Your Baseline? Shorts for you just to lighten up our summer break a bit. The topic is why simulation should not be in your process mining tool. And I'm fully aware that this is a controversial thing because people might think, “Well, it's convenient to have it in your process mining tool to do some what-ifs and move on.”



But I honestly think it's a bad decision because you're limited to your process mining data, and, hand on heart, how many processes have you mined in your organization? So without further ado, have fun with this week's What's Your Baseline? Shorts. See you next week!



(And here are the show notes from the initial release)



The topic of this What’s Your Baseline Shorts podcast is process simulation and why you should not have this in your process mining tool but rather as part of your design platform.

We speak about these topics:

• Why simulation?
• What do you need for simulation?
• What are the outcomes of a simulation?
• What are the different types of simulation?



Please reach out to us by either sending an email to ⁠hello@whatsyourbaseline.com⁠ or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: ⁠https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe.

Today, we are re-releasing a “What's Your Baseline?” short from about two and a half years ago.

And the topic of today is how to create good dashboards. And I do not think about how to do this mechanically with your tool of choice. I'm thinking about what is the thinking behind it. That might be because I'm currently writing on the chapter about dashboarding and storytelling in my upcoming second book, “Successful Processed Mining Projects”.

So without further ado, enjoy What's Your Baseline? Shorts 6: How to create a good dashboard.

(And here are the show notes from the initial release)

Everyone wants to consume and understand large amounts of data. But how do you plan, design, and implement a good dashboard?
In this What's Your Baseline Shorts, J-M and Roland walk you through the process and the considerations at each step, so that the next time you create a dashboard (for example as part of your Process Mining analysis) it will be stakeholder-oriented with a clear visual hierarchy that will make your users understand your message easily and quickly.

In this episode, we are talking about:

• Identify your stakeholders and information needs
• Define KPI and measures
• Create a solution design
• Build the dashboards
• Identify data stories
• Roll-out dashboards

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe.