ITIL Meets Process Mining

From Framework to Flow: How Process Mining Unlocks the Full Potential of ITIL

ITIL has long been the gold standard in IT service management (ITSM). It provides a robust framework that outlines best practices for delivering high-quality IT services. But while ITIL tells you what should happen, it doesn’t show you what is actually happening.

This is where process mining enters the picture. And in my experience — from consulting with IT organizations to scaling global operations — this combination is not just powerful; it’s essential.

The Gap Between Theory and Reality

Let me take you back to one of my early ITIL implementation projects. The client had meticulously designed their incident and change management workflows based on ITIL guidelines. Everything looked perfect on paper. We celebrated the rollout.

Two months later? Chaos.

Tickets were stuck in queues. Changes bypassed approval. Incidents were closed without resolution. The problem wasn’t the ITIL framework — it was the disconnect between the designed process and actual execution.

Enter process mining.

By analyzing the event logs from their ITSM system, we quickly saw the reality:

• 34% of incidents bypassed first-line support
• Average resolution time had ballooned to 3.5x the target SLA
• One team had unknowingly introduced a manual re-routing loop

We didn’t need a new framework. We needed transparency.

What Process Mining Brings to ITIL

✅ Visibility Into Real Flows

Process mining takes timestamped data from tools like ServiceNow or Jira and reconstructs the actual workflows — from the first ticket submission to final resolution.

You can instantly see:

• How incidents are really routed
• Where handoffs cause delays
• Where SLAs are broken
• Which paths are used most — and least

✅ Objective Process Compliance

ITIL offers detailed process definitions. Process mining helps you measure how well your team adheres to them — automatically.

Want to know how often your change management process skips risk assessment? Process mining gives you the answer. Not based on guesswork, but real data.

✅ Data-Driven Service Improvement

One of ITIL’s pillars is continual service improvement (CSI). But improvement without insight is just guesswork.

Process mining enables you to:

• Benchmark performance across teams
• Measure the impact of new tools or policies
• Justify automation efforts with data

Real Example: Incident Management

One ProcessMind customer was following ITIL guidelines for incident handling. But users still complained about long delays.

After analyzing the incident process with ProcessMind:

• 60% of incidents were being reassigned at least twice
• Some low-priority tickets took 5x longer to close than high-priority ones
• Only 72% of tickets followed the intended process path

Based on this, the team made simple changes to their assignment logic and added a quick triage automation.

Result? SLA compliance jumped from 77% to 93% within 6 weeks.

Why ProcessMind is Built for ITIL

At ProcessMind, we designed our platform with complex, regulated, and often rigid environments in mind — just like ITSM.

Here’s why it fits so well:

• ⚙️ Plug & Play Integration with ITSM tools (like ServiceNow, Jira Service Management)
• 🌐 Multi-perspective analysis: See the process from the user’s view, support team’s view, or system flow
• 🧐 No-code modeling: Easily map your ITIL processes and compare them to reality
• ⏳ Time-based KPIs: Instantly measure SLA breaches, idle time, and routing efficiency
• 🔄 Feedback Loop for CSI: Use real data to inform retrospectives and reviews

Final Thoughts

ITIL provides the blueprint. Process mining shows the building.

And in complex environments like ITSM, you need both.

If you’re running ITIL-based operations and still flying blind — or relying solely on dashboards and ticket stats — it’s time to dig deeper.

ProcessMind can help you turn best-practice frameworks into real, measurable outcomes.

Want to learn more or see how it works in your own environment? Try a free trial.

Because in service management, what you don’t see can hurt you.