What is an event log?

Event logs (that were created from digital traces in IT systems) are used in process mining to generate process insights and to unlock both optimization and improvement potentials for your business.

An event log is a table that contains case and event information.

Three fields are necessary to run the algorithms:

• CaseID
• ActivityType
• Start and/or End Timestamp

Additionally, the event log can contain context information, such as the company, areas, machines or users.

In Process Mining the concepts of cases, activities, events, and process variants are used.

A case (or process instance) is a collection of events that are undertaken to transform an object according to a process.
A process variant is the sequence from start until end in one case.

Go to Process vs Case, Event vs Activity to see a simple example of a process - a ticket process.