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Goal-driven Variant Categorization

Summary

This paper proposes a goal-driven approach to categorizing process variants that reverses the usual workflow. Instead of clustering variants by structural similarity and then manually assigning business meaning, analysts first author an organization's goal model, which predefines the categorization axis. Each variant is converted into a textual narrative of its behavior, and an LLM interprets that narrative against the goal model to assign the variant to a category. The approach was implemented end-to-end and evaluated on three public logs of widely differing scale and behavioral diversity; goal-model guidance produced partitions that differ from unguided induction and that respond to controlled edits of the declared alternatives, at the cost of authoring a goal model.

SourcearXiv AIAuthor: Daniel Calegari, Daniel Amyot
Goal-driven Variant Categorization
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[Submitted on 18 Sep 2026]

Title:Goal-driven Variant Categorization

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Abstract:Process discovery rarely yields a single coherent process structure. For analysis, a common step is to cluster process variants based on structural similarity and then assign business meaning to the resulting groups. Since these partitions are not derived from the organization's goals, analysts must manually interpret and consolidate variants into business-meaningful categories. This judgment-intensive step becomes increasingly difficult as the number and complexity of variants grow. In this paper, we propose a goal-driven approach to variant categorization that reverses this workflow. We first author an organization's goal model that predefines the categorization axis. Each variant is transformed into a textual narrative describing its behavior, and a Large Language Model (LLM) interprets it in the context of the goal model and assigns the variant to the most appropriate category. LLM-based semantic reasoning connects low-level process behavior with analyst-defined business goals. We instantiate this approach end-to-end and evaluate it on three public logs differing substantially in scale and behavioral diversity. Goal-model guidance yields partitions that differ from those produced by unguided induction and respond to controlled edits to the declared alternatives, at the cost of authoring a goal model.

Subjects:

Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Databases (cs.DB); Software Engineering (cs.SE)

Cite as: arXiv:2609.22475 [cs.AI]

(or arXiv:2609.22475v1 [cs.AI] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.22475

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Daniel Calegari [view email] [v1] Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:35:41 UTC (73 KB)

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Key points and analysis

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Key points

  • Reverses the standard workflow: the organization's goal model defines the categorization axis before any grouping happens
  • Each process variant is turned into a textual behavior narrative, which an LLM interprets in the context of the goal model
  • Evaluated end-to-end on three public logs that differ substantially in scale and behavioral diversity
  • Goal-model guidance yields partitions unlike unguided induction and reacts to controlled edits of the alternatives, but requires authoring a goal model

Highlights and analysis are generated automatically and may contain errors. Check the original source.