Alpha algorithm

The α-algorithm is an algorithm used in process mining, aimed at reconstructing causality from a set of sequences of events. It was first put forward by van der Aalst, Weijters and Măruşter. Several extensions or modifications of it have since been presented, which will be listed below.

It constructs P/T nets with special properties (workflow nets) from event logs (as might be collected by an ERP system). Each transition in the net corresponds to an observed task.