Exformatics declarative case management workflows as DCR graphs

Abstract

Declarative workflow languages have been a growing research subject over the past ten years, but applications of the declarative approach in industry are still uncommon. Over the past two years Exformatics A/S, a Danish provider of Electronic Case Management systems, has been cooperating with researchers at IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) to create tools for the declarative workflow language Dynamic Condition Response Graphs (DCR Graphs) and incorporate them into their products and in teaching at ITU. In this paper we give a status report over the work. We start with an informal introduction to DCR Graphs. We then show how DCR Graphs are being used by Exformatics to model workflows through a case study of an invoice workflow. Finally we give an overview of the tools that have been developed by Exformatics to support working with DCR Graphs and evaluate their use in capturing requirements of workflows and in a bachelor level course at ITU. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.