=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1789/bpm-demo-2016-paper2
|storemode=property
|title=The DCR Graphs Process Portal
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1789/bpm-demo-2016-paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-1789
|authors=Søren Debois,Thomas Hildebrandt,Morten Marquard,Tijs Slaats
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/bpm/DeboisHMS16
}}
==The DCR Graphs Process Portal==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1789/bpm-demo-2016-paper2.pdf
The DCR Graphs Process Portal
Søren Debois1 , Thomas Hildebrandt1 , Morten Marquard2 , and Tijs Slaats3 ?
1
IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
{debois, hilde}@itu.dk, http://www.itu.dk
2
Exformatics A/S, Denmark
{mmq}@exformatics.com, http://www.exformatics.com
3
Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
{slaats}@di.ku.dk, http://www.diku.dk/
Abstract. We demonstrate the dcrgraphs.net Process Portal: a cloud-based
solution for collaborative continuous development and analysis of knowledge in-
tensive processes. This tool is the result of a long-term collaboration between
Exformatics A/S, a Danish provider of Adaptive Case Management (ACM) solu-
tions, and researchers from IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) and the Depart-
ment 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 audi-
ence are researchers and practitioners interested in process modelling notations
and techniques for knowledge workflow management and similarly flexible pro-
cess environments.
Introduction In this demonstration we present dcrgraphs.net, a cloud-based com-
mercial solution for modelling, simulating and analysing declarative process models,
built and supported commercially by Exformatics A/S. The solution is free for aca-
demic use.
The core philosophy of the tool is that the declarative and imperative modelling
paradigms are solving fundamentally distinct problems, and therefore tooling around
them must be similarly distinct. Declarative modelling notations, such as Declare [6]
and Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs [2, 4, 8] achieve flexibility by encod-
ing a multitude of potential executions of a workflow into a set of rules. This means
on the one hand that a single model embodies potentially orders of magnitudes more
potential workflow executions—more flexibility!—than imperative notations such as
BPMN [5], but on the other that the modeller has to account for the increased complex-
ity that comes with these many different possible executions. Thus, declarative models
?
Authors listed alphabetically. This work is supported in part by the Hybrid Business Process
Management Technologies project (DFF 6111-00337, 2016-2019) and the Computational Ar-
tifacts project (VELUX 33295, 2014-2017)
Copyright c 2016 for this paper by its authors. Copying permitted for private and academic
purposes.
8 Debois et al.
buy flexibility at the cost of complexity. A declarative model is not as readily under-
stood from “looking at the model” [7] as is a model in an imperative notation such as
BPMN [5], but this is to be expected: imperative models express less complexity. They
solve a different problem than declarative models.
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 [3]. The formal semantics of the notation and some of its primary extensions are
described in [2, 4, 8].
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 fea-
tures by creating, modelling, simulating and analysing an example model. Audience
members will be invited to participate in collaborative aspects from their own devices.
Fig. 1. The Process Portal
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
The DCR Graphs Process Portal 9
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.
Fig. 2. The Process Designer
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 understand-
ability 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 ac-
tivities 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 organisa-
tional 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 pro-
cesses 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
10 Debois et al.
Fig. 3. The Simulation Window
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-of-
concept 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 plug-
in. 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 devel-
opment of DCR Graph technologies and tools started in 2010 [9]. The development of
the portal in its present form [3] started in the spring of 2014 and the first official release
was in the autumn of the same year. It has since been continuously updated.
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
The DCR Graphs Process Portal 11
Fig. 4. Process Analysis
State of Rio de Janeiro. Exformatics uses the portal to model and maintain the pro-
cesses of their customers, in particular a Danish foundation [1], whose Adaptive Case
Management solution uses a declarative process engine for executing its processes.
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.
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