Raghava Rao Mukkamala

Declarative Event-Based Workflow as Distributed Dynamic Condition Response Graphs

We present Dynamic Condition Response Graphs (DCR Graphs) as a declarative, event-based process model inspired by the workflow language employed by our industrial partner and conservatively generalizing prime event structures. A dynamic condition response graph is a directed graph with nodes representing the events that can happen and arrows representing four relations between events: condition, response, include, and exclude. Distributed DCR Graphs is then obtained by assigning roles to events and principals. We give a graphical notation inspired by related work by van der Aalst et al. We exemplify the use of distributed DCR Graphs on a simple workflow taken from a field study at a Danish hospital, pointing out their flexibility compared to imperative workflow models. Finally we provide a mapping from DCR Graphs to Buchi-automata.

Nested dynamic condition response graphs

We present an extension of the recently introduced declarative process model Dynamic Condition Response Graphs (DCR Graphs) to allow nested sub-graphs and a new milestone relation between events. The extension was developed during a case study carried out jointly with our industrial partner Exformatics, a danish provider of case and workflow management systems. We formalize the semantics by giving first a map from Nested to (flat) DCR Graphs with milestones, and then extending the previously given mapping from DCR Graphs to Buchi-automata to include the milestone relation.

From Paper Based Clinical Practice Guidelines to Declarative Workflow Management

We present a field study of oncology workflow, involving doctors, nurses and pharmacists at Danish hospitals and discuss the obstacles, enablers and challenges for the use of computer based clinical practice guidelines. Related to the CIGDec approach of Pesic and van der Aalst we then describe how a sub workflow can be described in a declarative workflow management system: the Resultmaker Online Consultant (ROC). The example demonstrates that declarative primitives allow to naturally extend the paper based flowchart to an executable model without introducing a complex cyclic control flow graph.

Contracts for Cross-organizational Workflows as Timed Dynamic Condition Response Graphs

We conservatively extend the declarative Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graph process model, introduced in the PhD thesis of the second author, to allow for discrete time deadlines. We prove that safety and liveness properties can be verified by mapping finite timed DCR Graphs to finite state transition systems. We exemplify how deadlines can introduce time-locks and deadlocks and violate liveness. We then prove that the general technique for safe distribution of DCR Graphs provided in previous work can be extended to timed DCR Graphs. We exemplify the use of timed DCR Graphs and the distribution technique in praxis on a timed extension of a cross-organizational case management process arising from a previous case study. The example shows how a timed DCR Graph can be used to describe the global contract for a timed workflow process involving several organizations, which can then be distributed as a network of communicating timed DCR Graphs describing the local contract for each organization.

Fuzzy-Set Based Sentiment Analysis of Big Social Data

Computational approaches to social media analytics are largely limited to graph theoretical approaches such as social network analysis (SNA) informed by the social philosophical approach of relational sociology. There are no other unified modelling approaches to social data that integrate the conceptual, formal, software, analytical and empirical realms. In this paper, we first present and discuss a theory and conceptual model of social data. Second, we outline a formal model based on fuzzy set theory and describe the operational semantics of the formal model with a real-world social data example from Facebook. Third, we briefly present and discuss the Social Data Analytics Tool (SODATO) that realizes the conceptual model in software and provisions social data analysis based on the conceptual and formal models. Fourth, we use SODATO to fetch social data from the Facebook wall of a global brand, H&M and conduct a sentiment classification of the posts and comments. Fifth, we analyse the sentiment classifications by constructing crisp as well as the fuzzy sets of the artefacts (posts, comments, likes, and shares). We document and discuss the longitudinal sentiment profiles of artefacts and actors on the facebook page. Sixth and last, we discuss the analytical method and conclude with a discussion of the benefits of set theoretical approaches based on the social philosophical approach of associational sociology.

Safe distribution of declarative processes

We give a general technique for safe distribution of a declarative (global) process as a network of (local) synchronously communicating declarative processes. Both the global and local processes are given as Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs. DCR Graphs is a recently introduced declarative process model generalizing labelled prime event structures to a systems model able to finitely represent ω-regular languages. An operational semantics given as a transition semantics between markings of the graph allows DCR Graphs to be conveniently used as both specification and execution model. The technique for distribution is based on a new general notion of projection of DCR Graphs relative to a subset of labels and events identifying the set of external events that must be communicated from the other processes in the network in order for the distribution to be safe. We prove that for any vector of projections that covers a DCR Graph that the network of synchronously communicating DCR Graphs given by the projections is bisimilar to the original global process graph. We exemplify the distribution technique on a process identified in a case study of an cross-organizational case management system carried out jointly with Exformatics A/S.

Towards a Set Theoretical Approach to Big Data Analytics

Formal methods, models and tools for social big data analytics are largely limited to graph theoretical approaches such as social network analysis (SNA) informed by relational sociology. There are no other unified modeling approaches to social big data that integrate the conceptual, formal and software realms. In this paper, we first present and discuss a theory and conceptual model of social data. Second, we outline a formal model based on set theory and discuss the semantics of the formal model with a real-world social data example from Facebook. Third, we briefly present and discuss the Social Data Analytics Tool (SODATO) that realizes the conceptual model in software and provisions social data analysis based on the conceptual and formal models. Fourth and last, based on the formal model and sentiment analysis of text, we present a method for profiling of artifacts and actors and apply this technique to the data analysis of big social data collected from Facebook page of the fast fashion company, H&M.

Towards Trustworthy Adaptive Case Management with Dynamic Condition Response Graphs

We describe how the declarative Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs process model can be used for trustworthy adaptive case management by leveraging the flexible execution, dynamic composition and adaptation supported by DCR Graphs. The dynamically composed and adapted graphs are verified for deadlock freedom and liveness in the SPIN model checker by utilizing a mapping from DCR Graphs to PROMELA code. We exemplify the approach by a small workflow extracted from a field study at a danish hospital.

Designing a Cross-Organizational Case Management System Using Dynamic Condition Response Graphs

We present a case study of the use of Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) Graphs, a recently introduced declarative business process model, in the design of a cross-organizational case management system being developed by Exformatics A/S, a Danish provider of knowledge and workflow management systems. We show how DCR Graphs allow to capture directly both the behavioral constraints identified during meetings with the customer and the operational execution as markings of the graph. In comparison, imperative models such as BPMN, Petri Net, UML Sequence or Activity diagrams are only good at describing the operational way to fulfill the constraints, leaving the constraints implicit. In particular, we point out that the BPMN ad-hoc sub process activity, intended to support more loosely structured goal driven ad-hoc processes, is inconsistently described in the final version of the BPMN 2.0 standard. The case study motivated an extension of the DCR Graphs model to nested graphs and the development of graphical design and simulation tools to increase the understanding of the models. The study also revealed a number of challenges for future research in techniques for model-driven design of cross-organizational process-aware information systems combining declarative and imperative models.

From Dynamic Condition Response Structures to Büchi Automata

Recently we have presented distributed dynamic condition response structures (DCR structures) as a declarative process model conservatively generalizing labelled event structures to allow for finite specifications of repeated, possibly infinite behavior. The key ideas are to split the causality relation of event structures in two dual relations: the condition relation and the response relation, to split the conflict relation in two relations: the dynamic exclusion and dynamic inclusion, and finally to allow configurations to be multi sets of events. In the present abstract we recall the model and show how to characterise the execution of DCR structures and the acceptance condition for infinite runs by giving a map to Bu ??chi-automata. This is the first step towards automatic verification of processes specified as DCR structures.