Episode 97 — Successful Process Mining Projects (Roland wrote a book … AGAIN)
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/.
Additional information
- The writing tool that I use for the books: languagetool.org
- Here are a few graphics from the book that we mentioned in the episode:



- Additional episodes mentioned today
- UPDATE – the book is now live. Here are the links to all the different marketplaces:
- Our webstore > e-book and paperback: https://whatsyourbaseline.gumroad.com
- • Amazon > and paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Process-Mining-Projects-practical/dp/1967221049/
- • Apple Books > e-book: https://books.apple.com/us/book/successful-process-mining-projects/id6751518045
- • Google Books > e-book: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=qBiBEQAAQBAJ
- • Barnes & Noble > e-book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1148115611?ean=2940184337418
Credits
Music by Jeremy Voltz, www.jeremyvoltzmusic.com
Roland Woldt is a well-rounded executive with 25+ years of Business Transformation consulting and software development/system implementation experience, in addition to leadership positions within the German Armed Forces (11 years).
He has worked as Team Lead, Engagement/Program Manager, and Enterprise/Solution Architect for many projects. Within these projects, he was responsible for the full project life cycle, from shaping a solution and selling it, to setting up a methodological approach through design, implementation, and testing, up to the rollout of solutions.
In addition to this, Roland has managed consulting offerings during their lifecycle from the definition, delivery to update, and had revenue responsibility for them.
Roland has had many roles: VP of Global Consulting at iGrafx, Head of Software AG’s Global Process Mining CoE, Director in KPMG’s Advisory (running the EA offering for the US firm), and other leadership positions at Software AG/IDS Scheer and Accenture. Before that, he served as an active-duty and reserve officer in the German Armed Forces.
