Towards a decision-aware declarative process modeling language for knowledge-intensive processes

Abstract

Abstract. Modeling loosely framed and knowledge-intensive business processes with the currently available process modeling languages is very challenging. Some lack the flexibility to model this type of processes, while others are missing one or more perspectives needed to add the necessary level of detail to the models. In this paper we have composed a list of requirements that a modeling language should fulfil in order to adequately support the modeling of this type of processes. Based on these requirements, a metamodel for a new modeling language was developed that satisfies them all. The new language, called DeciClare, incorporates parts of several existing modeling languages, integrating them with new solutions to requirements thathad not yet been met. Deciclare is a declarative modeling language at its core, and therefore, can inherently deal with the flexibility required to model loosely framed processes. The complementary resource and data perspectives add the capability to reason about, respectively, resources and data values. The latter makes it possible to encapsulate the knowledge that governs the process flow by offering support for decision modeling. The abstract syntax of DeciClare has been implemented in the form of an Ecore model. Based on this implementation, the language-domain appropriateness of the language was validated by domain experts using the arm fracture case as application scenario.

Discovering health-care processes using DeciClareMiner

“…This allows for a checklist, of which activities need to be performed, could be performed, and should not be performed, at any point during the execution of a process to be created dynamically. DeciClare (Mertens et al, 2017) takes this a step further by allowing the models to specify the actual decision logic, if available, regarding the time at which certain activities must be performed, could be performed, or should not be performed. In principle, this allows for the dynamic creation of an intelligent checklist that is tailored to a specific situation.…”

“…DeciClare is a mixed-perspective declarative process and decision modelling language that specifically targets health-care processes (Mertens et al, 2017). It can be used to create detailed models of the control flow, data, and resource aspects of health-care processes.…”

“…This paper uses a direct instantiation (i.e., a temporary visual syntax in a textual format) of this abstract syntax, as a real visual syntax has not yet been developed at this time. DeciClare incorporates some concepts of the Declare language and its extensions (Jiménez-Ramírez & Barba, 2013;Pesic, 2008;Westergaard & Maggi, 2012) as well as the DMN language (Object Management Group, 2014). The language supports 36 constraint templates (i.e., types of constraints) spanning four template classes: existence, relation, resource, and data.…”

“…The templates are branched, which means that instead of taking just one element as input, they accept a logical expression using multiple elements and logical operators (e.g., "e 1 or e 2 must be executed at least twice"). For a complete explanation of DeciClare, we refer the reader to (Mertens et al, 2017).…”

“…As a result, these languages cannot be used to model the knowledge governing these processes. As part of our ongoing research project, we have developed a declarative process modelling language, called DeciClare, designed specifically for modelling these types of processes (Mertens, Gailly, & Poels, 2017). DeciClare uses decision logic as a complement to the declarative modelling concepts to provide the means to describe processes from the data perspective.…”