We demonstrate the dcrgraphs.net Process Portal: a cloud-based solution for collaborative continuous development and analysis of knowledge intensive processes. This tool is the result of a long-term collaboration between Exformatics A/S, a Danish provider of Adaptive Case Management (ACM) solutions, and researchers from IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) and the Department of Computer Science at University of Copenhagen (DIKU). The tool draws heavily on current research into declarative process modelling notations: it is built upon the declarative Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs notation. In our demonstration we will introduce the primary features of the tool: (1) a portal for creating, storing and sharing processes, (2) a declarative process designer, (3) a collaborative simulator, and (4) process analysis modules. The intended audience are researchers and practitioners interested in process modelling notations and techniques for knowledge workflow management and similarly flexible process environments.
buy flexibility at the cost of complexity. A declarative model is not as readily
understood from “looking at the model” [
The tool is grounded in the belief that flexibility is a necessity for Adaptive Case Management, and that this complexity is a necessary evil of that flexibility. The only way forward is to aid the modeller in creating and understanding his model. Providing this support is the core aim of the dcrgraphs.net solution.
The portal, its main features, and the underlying DCR Graph notation were reported
on in [
In the present paper we describe the main features of the portal and how they help curb complexity: 1. The main portal, which acts as a social repository for declarative process models in which models can be shared and discussed with other users. 2. The process designer, which enables the user to model their processes. 3. The simulator, which supports both individual and collaborative simulation 4. Analysis tools, which allow the user to understand model behaviour.
At the live demonstration we will familiarise the audience with each of these features by creating, modelling, simulating and analysing an example model. Audience members will be invited to participate in collaborative aspects from their own devices. Process Portal Figure 1 shows the main portal. The right half of the screen is used to display lists of personal, shared and public process models. The left half of the screen displays activity streams, which can be used to discuss with other users. Users can add colleagues and friends to their personal network, which allows them to share models and join collaborative simulations. Process Designer Figure 2 shows the process designer. At the centre is the process model, consisting of boxes representing activities and relations between the boxes that represent the rules governing the process. Clicking on activities and rules brings up an options pane which allows one to customise that element. To facilitate the understandability of process models a number of visual filters are offered by the designer: activities can be assigned a level of abstraction at which they are shown, meaning that the users can start to view the process at the highest level of abstraction, showing only a few activities and then gradually introduce more details by lowering the level of abstraction. In addition activities can be assigned to any number of user-defined groups, which e.g. allows the user to view only those activities that are relevant to a particular organisational unit. The designer also supports fine-grained revision tracking, which allows any change to the model to be inspected and reverted. The designer can import and export DCR Graphs in a standardised XML format which is used by a number of external tools.
Collaborative Simulation Many processes involve a collaboration between multiple actors, often in different organisations. For the successful implementation of such processes it is imperative that the end-users understand their own role. To facilitate this the DCR Portal supports both individual and collaborative simulation, which can be started from the designer. Here the user can invite connections to their simulation and assign roles to them. Figure 3 shows the simulation window; on the left one can see the current DCR Graph, with its marking updated according to the actions taken by the users. On the right the user is presented with a task list, the log of previously executed tasks and a list of participants.
Analysis Tools The DCR Portal offers a flexible plug-in framework which can be
used by third parties to create additional functionality for the portal. As a
proof-ofconcept several analysis tools have been developed as plug-ins. The first is the path
analyser, essentially a GPS for processes: the user can enter a start and goal activity
and the analyser will determine the shortest possible execution path to get to the goal.
Typical GPS-like functions, such as intermediate activities or activities to avoid are also
supported. The other plug-in is the dead-end analyser, which can be used to detect
dead- and live-lock in processes. Figure 4 shows an example of the path analyser
plugin. Here the user has asked for a path from Create to Payout, using the activity Reject at
least once. The proposed path is drawn as a swimlane diagram in the bottom window.
Maturity, Availability, Documentation and Video Tutorials Altogether, the
development of DCR Graph technologies and tools started in 2010 [
Since the spring of 2015 the portal has been used in classes at IT university of
Copenhagen, most prominently a process modelling class for 75 bachelor and M.Sc.
students. The portal has also been used for teaching at the Federal University of the
State of Rio de Janeiro. Exformatics uses the portal to model and maintain the
processes of their customers, in particular a Danish foundation [
The portal is accessible for free online at http://www.dcrgraphs.net/. Documentation is available through a wiki at http://wiki.dcrgraphs.net/, which contains video tutorials explaining how to use the different features of the portal.