3 Ways to Distinguish Task Mining vs Process Mining in '24

Leading process mining vendors develop task mining capabilities and offer the two tools in one package. In some cases, vendors do distinguish between the solutions, but they often mention them interchangeably since task mining and process mining are both useful tools to achieve process efficiency and discover automation opportunities. 

These solutions serving similar purposes and being used interchangeably might confuse business leaders as to which one is the right one for them. 

Therefore, in this article we list and explain the points by which these two software differ from each other although we see the tools as complementary. 

Data source & Focus

Process mining extracts business data stored as event log data in the IT systems and web applications such as CRM, ERP systems or HubSpot. The event log data structure mainly shows activities, each activity’s ID,  and the timestamp.  Therefore, process mining brings visibility to the execution of a process by showing steps taken, duration of activities or deviations that occur. 

Task mining collects the desktop data through monitoring and recording user interactions. In accounting, for instance, interactions include ensuring that the amounts are correct, that the receipts and invoices match, and the time the user spends on a certain page. By analyzing and visualizing the desktop data, business leaders assess the performance  of the employees better. 

Granularity & Scope

A process contains events and subtasks with clear starting and ending points, such as invoice processing. Process mining analyzes these events and displays the whole process including subtasks, activities and duration. 

Tasks can be part of a single process or can connect several processes. Some manual tasks include copy pasting the data from one source to the other or uploading files. Task mining focuses on these single tasks by showing details about steps and actions taken in the task execution.  

Data collection & analysis

Process mining integrates with the IT systems to collect the data by utilizing ML algorithms. Once the data is gathered, cleaned and wrangled for the analysis, the process mining tool visualizes the way the full process looks and compares it against the ideal models with the help of ML algorithms and data science methods. Based on the results, analysts can detect the bottlenecks or deviations and develop modifications and re-designs.   

Task mining is installed on the desktop and once the user permits, it records everything by working in the background. Task mining can benefit from computer vision, rules mining, text mining, NLP and optical character recognition. By capturing user’s actions and steps, analysts can identify root causes of bottlenecks and deviations better.

Which one is right for you?

Using them together provides a more profound understanding of business operations on multiple levels. 

Process mining misses details that are not stored as event logs data, such as information kept on Excel files. These limitations restrict the analysis and identification of the process issues. Task mining overcomes such challenges as it captures the users’ digital footprints in documents and productivity apps that employees use.  

On the other hand, using task mining alone is not useful because task mining solutions tend to analyze discrete tasks rather than the entire process. Therefore, the analysts that only leverage task mining software would hold quite a limited picture of their processes.

Further Reading

Discover more on process intelligence and other process technology tools:

• What is Process Technology & 3 Reasons to apply it?
• What is Process Intelligence & 5 Reasons Why it matters?

If you believe that your business can benefit from process mining and task mining, review our data-driven vendor lists.

Assess different vendors with a transparent methodology yourself by downloading our checklist: 

And, if you still have questions, do not hesitate contact us: