Using Process Mining with Pre- and Post-Intervention Analysis to Improve Digital Service Delivery: A Governmental Case Study

Abstract

We present a case study of Process Mining (PM) for per- sonnel security screening in the Canadian government. We consider cus- tomer (process time) and organizational (cost) perspectives. Further- more, in contrast to most published case studies, we assess the full pro- cess improvement lifecycle: pre-intervention analyses pointed out initial bottlenecks, and post-intervention analyses identified the intervention impact and remaining areas for improvement. Using PM techniques, we identified frequent exceptional scenarios (e.g., applications requir- ing amendment), time-intensive loops (e.g., employees forgetting tasks), and resource allocation issues (e.g., involvement of non-security person- nel). Subsequent process improvement interventions, implemented using a flexible low-code digital platform, reduced security briefing times from around 7 days to 46 hours, and overall process time from around 31 days to 26 days, on average. From a cost perspective, the involvement of hiring managers and security screening officers was significantly reduced. These results demonstrate how PM can become part of a broader digital trans- formation framework to improve public service delivery. The success of these interventions motivated subsequent government PM projects, and inspired a PM methodology, currently under development, for use in large organizational contexts such as governments.