From Theory to Practice: How Fraunhofer FIT and Its Ecosystem Brought Wil van der Aalst’s Process Mining Vision to Market
摘要
This article chronicles the journey of translating Wil van der Aalst’s foundational process mining concepts into practical, market-ready applications through the collaborative efforts of Fraunhofer FIT’s Process Mining research group, the Center for Process Intelligence (CPI), and the Process Intelligence Solutions (PIS) spin-off. Since 2018, this three-dimensional ecosystem has generated over 2.5 million software downloads, many industry projects, and 100+ peer-reviewed publications while successfully bridging academic excellence with commercial impact. We demonstrate how van der Aalst’s theoretical contributions enabled not just scientific advancement but sustainable institution building, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of research, consulting, and commercialization that continues to advance the field of process mining.