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Declarative process modeling formalisms—which capture high-level process constraints—have seen growing interest, especially for modeling flexible processes. This paper presents DisCoveR, an efficient and accurate declarative miner for learning Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs from event logs. We present a precise formalization of the algorithm, describe a highly efficient bit vector implementation and present a preliminary evaluation against five other miners, representing the state-of-the-art in declarative and imperative mining. DisCoveR performs competitively with each of these w.r.t. a fully automated binary classification task, achieving an average accuracy of 96.1% in the Process Discovery Contest 2019 (Results are available at https://icpmconference.org/2019/process-discovery-contest). We appeal to computational learning theory to gain insight into its performance as a classifier. Due to its linear time complexity, DisCoveR also achieves much faster run times than other declarative miners. Finally, we show how the miner has been integrated in a state-of-the-art declarative process modeling framework as a model recommendation tool and discuss how discovery can play an integral part of the modeling task and report on how the integration has improved the modeling experience of end-users.

We provide a formal semantics for timed DCR graphs with decision events and data, and show how the model supports merging declarative decision modelling and process modelling in one notation. We exemplify the model by an expense report process and discuss how decisions may be presented using DMN jointly with the DCR process notation. If data domains are bounded, models are finite state and allow formal verification of both safety and liveness properties. The formal model is fully implemented in commercial process design and workflow management systems provided by DCR Solutions and also freely available for academic use.

We report on a new approach to co-creating adaptive case management systems jointly with end-users, developed in the context of the Effective co-created and compliant adaptive case Management Systems for Knowledge Workers (EcoKnow.org) research project. The approach is based on knowledge from prior ethnographic field studies and research in the declarative Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) technology for model-driven design of case management systems. The approach was tested in an operational environment jointly with the danish municipality of Syddjurs by conducting a service-design project and implementing an open source case manager tool and a new highlighter tool for mapping between textual specifications and the DCR notation. The design method and technologies were evaluated by understandability studies with endusers. The study showed that the development could be done in just 6 months, and that the new highlighter tool in combination with the traditional design and simulation tools, supports domain experts formalise and provide traceability between their interpretations of textual specifications and the formal models.

We report on a new approach to co-creating adaptive case management systems jointly with end-users, developed in the context of the Effective co-created and compliant adaptive case Management Systems for Knowledge Workers (EcoKnow.org) research project. The approach is based on knowledge from prior ethnographic field studies and research in the declarative Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) technology for model-driven design of case management systems. The approach was tested in an operational environment jointly with the danish municipality of Syddjurs by conducting a service-design project and implementing an open source case manager tool and a new highlighter tool for mapping between textual specifications and the DCR notation. The design method and technologies were evaluated by understandability studies with end-users. The study showed that the development could be done in just 6 months, and that the new highlighter tool in combination with the traditional design and simulation tools, supports domain experts formalise and provide traceability between their interpretations of textual specifications and the formal models.

In this paper, we report recent advances on user support for declarative process generation from natural language descriptions. The Process Highlighter is a hybrid-modelling tool that facilitates the (manual) creation of Dynamic Response Condition (DCR) graphs directly from text documents, supporting non-technical users in the adoption of declarative process models. While some process descriptions are a few paragraphs long, others, such as the ones coming from municipal governments and legal bodies might contain several pages. Some aspects that undermine the adoption of hybrid modelling techniques and their promised one-to-one correspondence between texts and process models are the length of the texts, the inconsistent use of terms, and the difficulty in identifying textual elements that correspond to elements in a declarative process model. To mitigate these risks, we have implemented major additions in the Process Highlighter for industrial usage. The principal change is the inclusion of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to support users in the identification of roles, activities and constraints. This, combined with the modelling, simulation and verification tools already existing in the framework, support the users in providing process models that are better aligned with their specifications, in a shorter time. These features are motivated from empirical observations of the use of the Process Highlighter in groups of caseworkers and students of process engineering in Danish universities.

Digitalisation of work and business processes with the aim to provide more efficient services at a higher and consistent quality is high on the agendas in many countries. In Denmark the push for digitalisation is witnessed by the national strategy for digitalisation published every four years. Sadly, it is also witnessed by a number of expensive failed digitalisation projects. In this paper we point to two key problems in state-of-The art BPM technologies: 1) the use of rigid flow diagrams as the "source code" of process digitalisation is not suitable for managing the complexity of knowledge workflows and regulations and 2) insufficient support for continuous and agile end-user mapping and adaptation of processes. We report on research in progress on how the Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graph technology and collaborative process repository DCRGraphs.net could support agile and collaborative, bottom-up digitalisation of business and workflow processes.

(a)Situation faced: Exformatics, a Danish adaptive case-management vendor, wanted to leverage declarative process tools to support the flexible processes found at BRFkredit. However, switching from the more common flow-based notations to a declarative notation brought new challenges in terms of understandability. We undertook the project described in this chapter to investigate and address these challenges. (b)Action taken: We started our investigation by having several full-day and half-day meetings to discuss BRFkredit’s requirements. Based on these requirements, we proposed and developed a prototype hybrid process-modelling approach with which models are defined declaratively, but the possible behavior of the model can be viewed and investigated using flow-based notions. The prototype was then presented to BRFkredit for feedback. (c)Results achieved: Our investigation helped to clarify the requirements for making declarative process models understandable to end users at BRFkredit and showed how a hybrid approach could be used to satisfy these requirements. Based on these insights, we developed tools to enhance our existing declarative modelling framework with flow-based visualizations. (d)Lessons learned: Different stakeholders have different needs and preferred levels of abstraction when process models are used as tools for communication. However, one model that seems to fit most situations is a simple no-branches sequential swimlane diagram that was extracted automatically from a more detailed declarative model. These observations enabled Exformatics to enhance its declarative modelling framework to make it more attractive to end-users.

We describe how the declarative Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs proces notation can be used to digitalise the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and make a first evaluation to what extend the formalisation and associated tool for end-user modelling and simulation can be used to clarify the meaning of the GDPR and its consequences for the main business process of a Danish funding agency.