Characterizing how users interact with software has many applications. For example, to understand which features are used, in which sequence operations are performed, etc. can help to understand how the user interface could be improved, to identify missing features, or to identify scenarios which are good candidates for test cases. This paper presents an industrial case study in which we investigate how users interact with an enterprise resource planning software using process mining. Our case study illustrates how we identify user interaction processes, the encountered advantages, and the faced challenges. One of the major findings is that the decision how to group events into cases is crucial for the application of the method.

The reputation of lightweight software development processes such as Agile and Lean is damaged by practitioners that claim benefits of such processes that are not true. Teams that want to demonstrate their seriousness, could benefit from matching their processes to the CMMI model, a recognized model by industry and the public administration. CMMI stands for Capability Maturity Model Integration and provides a reference model to improve and evaluate processes according to their maturity based on best practices. On the other hand, particularly in a lightweight software development process, the costs of a CMMI appraisal are hard to justify since its advantages are not directly related to the creation of value for the customer. This paper presents Jidoka4CMMI, a tool that — once a CMMI appraisal has been conducted — allows the documentation of the assessment criteria in form of executable test cases. The test cases, and so the CMMI appraisal, can be repeated anytime, without additional costs. The use of Jidoka4CMMI increases the benefits of conducting a CMMI appraisal. We hope that this encourages practitioners using lightweight software development processes to assess their processes using a CMMI model.

To understand and improve processes in organizations, six key questions need to be answered, namely, what, how, where, who, when, why. Organizations with established processes have IT system(s) that gather(s) information about some or all of the key questions. Software organizations usually have defined processes, but they usually lack information about how processes are actually executed. Moreover, there is no explicit information about process instances and activities. Existing process mining techniques face problems in coping with such environment. We propose a tool, Egidio, which uses non-invasively collected data and builds organizational models. In particular, we explain the tool within a software company, which is able to extract different aspects of development processes. The main contribution of Egidio is the ability to mine processes and organizational models from fine-grained data collected in a non-invasive manner, without interrupting the developers' work.