The short answer
Process mining reconstructs how a process actually runs from the event logs your systems already record: which steps, in which order, how long, and where it deviates. Hidden task detection looks for the work around and between those systems: handoffs where work waits, steps everyone assumes someone else does, knowledge that lives in one head, and decisions that wait on one person. One is not a better version of the other.
Side by side
| Process mining | Hidden task detection (HiddenTask / GLO25) | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting question | How does this process really run, and where does it deviate from the intended flow? | Are we working on the right problem, and where does work get stuck between people and decisions? |
| Evidence | Event logs: a case ID, an activity and a timestamp for each step, usually from ERP, CRM or workflow systems. | What people describe and what documents show: interviews, a written workflow, your own answers in the scan. |
| Typical output | The actual process map, variants, conformance gaps, lead times, rework loops and bottleneck steps. | Where friction sits per area, the hidden tasks behind it, the decision bottlenecks, and what to fix first. |
| Sees well | Everything a system records, at scale and over time, without relying on anyone's memory. | Work outside systems: email, spreadsheets, phone calls, informal approvals, one person's know-how. |
| Goes blind | Work that leaves no event in a system, and processes where logs are missing, incomplete or wrong. | Exact volumes and timings across thousands of cases; it relies on people describing their work well. |
| Data you need | A clean, connected event log. Often the main effort of a project. | None to start. A description of how the work runs today. |
What process mining does well
Process mining is a mature discipline with three classic uses:
- Discovery: build a model of how the process actually runs, straight from the logs.
- Conformance checking: compare that real process with the intended one and show where cases deviate.
- Performance analysis: add timing to the model to show waiting time, rework loops and the slowest steps.
When a process runs almost entirely inside systems that log every step, this gives an objective picture that interviews cannot match.
Where process mining goes blind
Process mining can only see what a system records. In many companies, and especially in small and mid-sized ones, an important part of the work never becomes an event:
- a quote that waits until the owner has looked at it;
- a check that everyone assumes the finance team does, and nobody does;
- a customer exception handled by phone and noted in someone's own spreadsheet;
- a weekly report that is still produced, but no longer read.
The log may show that a step is slow. It cannot show why: who is waiting for whom, which decision has no owner, or which step only one person knows how to do.
What hidden task detection adds
HiddenTask looks for four patterns that show up in almost every company, plus the decision layer above them:
- Broken handoffs: work waits days for an approval or a person.
- Assumed processes: everyone thinks someone owns a step; nobody does.
- Undocumented workstreams: knowledge lives in one head.
- Legacy processes: effort goes into output nobody uses.
- Decision bottlenecks: decisions wait on one person, have no owner, or keep coming back.
It also starts one step earlier: by checking whether the stated problem is the real constraint, before anyone spends months analysing it.
Using both
Clean event logs, clear question
Start with process mining. It gives you the hard picture of a process that runs inside your systems.
Work across people, email and spreadsheets
Start with hidden task detection. There is little to mine, and the friction is in the handoffs.
Already using process mining
Add your findings when you describe a workflow for a Workflow Check, so the review can focus on what the logs cannot show.
Frequently asked questions
Is HiddenTask or GLO25 a process mining tool?
No. GLO25 does not analyse event logs from your systems. HiddenTask looks at the work around and between systems: handoffs, assumed steps, knowledge in one person's head and decisions that wait. It is complementary to process mining, not a replacement.
Do I need event logs or an ERP export to start?
No. The Friction Scan runs on your own answers, and the Workflow Check starts from a process you describe in plain text. That is useful exactly where clean event logs do not exist.
We already use a process mining tool. Is this still useful?
It can be. Process mining tells you where a process deviates or slows down. You can include those findings when you describe a workflow for a Workflow Check, so the review can focus on what sits outside the system: who decides, who waits, and what is assumed.
Which one should I start with?
If the process runs almost entirely inside one system that logs every step, and your question is about that process, process mining is a strong first step. If work runs across people, email and spreadsheets, or you are not sure you are asking the right question, start with the Friction Scan.
See where your work gets stuck
Five minutes, free, based only on your own answers. No event logs needed.
Start the Friction ScanSend one workflowHiddenTask is part of GLO25 Project Services. GLO25 does not offer process mining software or event-log analysis. GLO25 work is diagnostic and advisory, not a formal valuation, audit opinion, or legal, tax, investment or financing advice.