In this demo, we introduce CRISTAL (Collection of ResourcecentrIc Supporting Tools and Languages), a tool suite aimed at improving the human resource management capabilities of current Business Process Management Systems (BPMSs), covering the design and enactment phases of the business process (BP) life cycle. The central element is Resource Assignment Language (RAL), a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for specifying resource assignments in process models. RAL’s strong analysis capabilities enable the automated resolution of resource assignment expressions both (i) at design time, serving for post-design analysis to find and correct potential problems prior to execution, and (ii) at run time, in order to execute the BP in an existing BPMS considering the RAL assignments for resource allocation. The resource assignments can be directly modelled in a Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) diagram, or specified by means of a RACI matrix. in the latter case, CRISTAL can take all the RACI information automatically and introduce it into a resource-unaware BPMN model at any moment, resulting in a RACI-aware BP model (and, thus, a resource-aware BP model)

Cabanillas Macías, Cristina

Resinas Arias de Reyna, Manuel

Ruiz Cortés, Antonio

Río Ortega, Adela del

idUS. Depósito de Investigación Universidad de Sevilla

CRISTAL: Collection of Resource-centrIcSupporting Tools And Languages?Cristina Cabanillas, Adela del-R´ıo-Ortega, Manuel Resinas, andAntonio Ruiz-Corte´sUniversidad de Sevilla, Spain{cristinacabanillas, adeladelrio, resinas, aruiz}@us.esAbstract. In this demo, we introduce CRISTAL (Collection of Resource-centrIc Supporting Tools And Languages), a tool suite aimed at improv-ing the human resource management capabilities of current Business Pro-cess Management Systems (BPMSs), covering the design and enactmentphases of the business process (BP) life cycle. The central element is Re-source Assignment Language (RAL), a Domain Specific Language (DSL)for specifying resource assignments in process models. RAL’s strong anal-ysis capabilities enable the automated resolution of resource assignmentexpressions both (i) at design time, serving for post-design analysis tofind and correct potential problems prior to execution, and (ii) at runtime, in order to execute the BP in an existing BPMS considering theRAL assignments for resource allocation. The resource assignments canbe directly modelled in a Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN)diagram, or specified by means of a RACI matrix. In the latter case,CRISTAL can take all the RACI information automatically and intro-duce it into a resource-unaware BPMN model at any moment, resultingin a RACI-aware BP model (and, thus, a resource-aware BP model).1 Background. RAL and RACI matricesRAL is a DSL specifically developed to express resource assignments for theactivities of a BP [1]. The language was designed to bridge the gap betweenBP models and organizational models, and to exceed the scope of existingapproaches. RAL expressions cover from simple assignments based on specificmembers of the company, to complex assignments containing access-control con-straints (e.g. Segregation of Duty -SoD-) between activities, as well as compoundexpressions. As can be seen in the following examples, its syntax is close to nat-ural language, which increases its understandability:RAL 1: IS SamuelRAL 2: NOT (IS PERSON WHO DID ACTIVITY CreateResolutionProposal)RAL 3: (HAS ROLE DocumentWriter) OR (HAS POSITION ACDocumentSigner)? This work has been partially supported by the European Commission (FEDER),Spanish Government under project SETI (TIN2009-07366); and projects THEOS(TIC-5906) and ISABEL (TIC-2533) funded by the Andalusian Local Government.We provided RAL with formal semantics based on Description Logics (DLs)in order to be able to automatically solve RAL expressions. It also enabled us tobenefit from operations implemented in DL reasoners to analyse BPs in terms ofhow resources are being managed. RAL’s semantics now cover both the designtime [2] and the run time phases of the BP life cycle [3], meaning that:– RAL assignments can be automatically solved at design time. Accuracy isnot possible for those expressions requiring run-time information though,since some data are missing (e.g. the expressions related to the person whodid a certain activity). Besides, the design-time resource-related analysis ofRAL expressions automates the answering of questions such as (i) who arethe potential performers of each BP activity?; or (ii) what is the potentialset of activities each person of an organization can be allocated at run time?– Regarding run time, resource assignments defined with RAL can be auto-matically solved during execution to obtain the real potential performers ofan activity given the specific run-time information. The allocation methodthen depends on the support provided by the Business Process ManagementSystem (BPMS) in which the process is executed.As explained in [1], RAL can be easily used in conjunction with BPMN 2.0because it can be directly integrated into it by using the resource assignmentmechanisms provided by the standard [4]. Nonetheless, it could also be integratedinto other workflow (WF) modelling notations, provided that they offered aflexible way to define resource assignments in a BP model.Furthermore, RAL can also be used together with RACI matrices to specifyresource assignments in a BP model. RACI matrices constitute an alternativefor enhancing the management of human resources in an organization, provid-ing detailed information about the degree of involvement of the members of thecompany in the activities carried out within it [5]. This degree of involvementis specified by means of the so-called RACI roles, which usually are: Respon-sible (R), Accountable (A), Consulted (C) and Informed (I). This extends thetraditional notion of resource assignments in BP models which only defines theresource that is in charge of the activity.2 CRISTAL’s Overview. Demonstration GuidelineCRISTAL is composed of several tools, to be named RACI2BPMN, DT RALSolver and RT RAL Solver, which facilitate the definition and analysis of re-sources in BP models. These tools can be used separately or sequentially. Fig-ure 1 provides an overview of the system, in which the tools are representedin rounded rectangles, their inputs and outputs are represented by documentslinked with dashed arrows, and the possible interconnection between tools isdone by using solid arrows. One possible way to use CRISTAL’s tools is thefollowing.We can use Oryx [6] or any other process editor supporting BPMN to builda resource-unaware BPMN model, i.e. a process model that does not containResource ModellerProcess ModellerRACI modelRACI Editor *RACI2BPMNBPMN Editor (Oryx)BPMN w/o resourcesOrganizational modelBPMN w/ resourcesDT RAL SolverRT RAL SolverBPMS (Activiti)Execution HistoryUsersActiviti ExplorerFig. 1: Overview of CRISTALany resource assignments. Then, with CRISTAL’s RACI Editor we can build aRACI matrix with the responsibility assignments we aim to apply to the processactivities. In order to generate accurate resource assignments for the process,the RACI matrix may need to be extended with some binding information.CRISTAL’s RACI Editor is a Web application that allows the definition of boththe RACI matrix and the binding information. It is currently under development.With these inputs, the RACI2BPMN tool can automatically turn the resource-unaware process model into a RACI-aware BPMN model, i.e. it contains theassignments from the RACI matrix and the binding information. The resource-related information in the model is expressed with RAL. The resulting BP modelcan be opened in any editor that supports BPMN 2.0 (e.g. Oryx), so both theprocess model and the resource assignments can be modified as desired.The next tool to be executed may be DT RAL Solver, which allows us toautomatically analyse the RAL expressions associated to the activities of a RAL-aware BP model. Among other operations, this tool automatically calculates theset of potential performers for each activity in the process model. To do so, thetool must receive the OWL description of an organizational model together withthe RAL-aware BP model.Finally, RAL-aware BP models can also be opened in an open-source BPMScalled Activiti1, in which we have previously integrated the RT RAL Solver tool.The goal of this tool is to automatically solve the RAL expressions at run time.Then, the proper activities are automatically offered to the potential performersresulting from the assignments at run time, to proceed with the allocation of thetasks to specific resources. The execution history is stored in execution logs.The low-level description of CRISTAL’s architecture can be found at www.isa.us.es/cristal/.3 Maturity and Significance to the BPM FieldThe DT RAL Solver tool was developed in 2011, as a prototype to demonstratehow DL reasoners could be used to automatically solve RAL expressions atdesign time [2]. Driven by research results, it was then extended to be providedwith the proper implementation to solve them considering run-time data as well.In the current version, RT RAL Solver is still a prototype.The RACI2BPMN tool has been recently developed from research resultson how to combine BPs and RACI matrices, given that the resource-relatedinformation provided by the matrices is greater than the information that today’sBP modelling notations allow to specify [7]. The main features currently providedby CRISTAL are the following:1. Automated generation of a BP model with complete informationabout the RACI roles involved in the BP. The model can be openedand modified in any modelling tool supporting BPMN, since it is BPMN-compliant. In addition, it is prepared to be directly executed in a BPMS.2. Design-time automated resolution of all the RAL expressions de-fined in [1]. As a result, the potential performers of the activities of a BPmodel can be automatically inferred from their RAL expressions at designtime. The design-time features are available as a plug-in for Oryx [6].3. Run-time automated resolution of most of the RAL expressionsdefined in [1]. Only those assignments related to information coming fromdata objects of the process are not yet implemented, since the mechanismto access data is ad-hoc to the BPMS in which the process is run, and thuswe did not consider this a fundamental feature to include in the prototype.Run-time implementation is delivered as a library for Activiti, a light-weightopen-source WF and BPMS.4. Flexibility in the organizational model against which RAL expressionsare solved. The only requirement is that the model must comply with theorganizational meta model used by RAL [1].5. Usability. In order for module RACI2BPMN to be executed, the user mustfill in the RACI matrix, and configure the binding information according tohis/her needs. The rest of the procedure is automatic. As for RAL Solver, theuse of both the plug-in for Oryx and the code for Activiti is straightforward.1 http://activiti.org/For the former, a few instructions can be found at http://www.isa.us.es/cristal/. The latter is totally transparent to the user of the BPMS.6. Extensibility capabilities. More analysis operations over RAL assign-ments can be easily added by composing operations already implementedby current DL reasoners (e.g. HermiT, or Pellet), as stated in [2].7. Re-usability. The core of the RAL Solver tool (i.e. RAL Analyser) can beused in other platforms, since it provides a simple and well-defined interface.However, CRISTAL has also some limitations. The efficiency of complexand/or compound resource assignments may not be good enough due to theinference operations the DL reasoner has to perform.3.1 Significance to the BPM FieldCRISTAL offers innovative features with respect to the (human) resource man-agement capabilities provided by current BPM notations and systems.First, to the best of our knowledge, RACI2BPMN is the first tool focused onthe automated introduction of RACI information in a process model, generatingRACI-aware BP models that can be executed with no need of changes.Second, regarding RAL, the RAL Solver tool provides BP modelling lan-guages with a more expressive mechanism to assign resources to tasks. Further-more, as far as we know, RAL is the first resource assignment language thatoffers automated analysis capabilities at design time that are built in the lan-guage itself. As for run time, it is a fact that most of the BPMSs existing atpresent have resource assignment mechanisms based basically on assigning usersor groups of users (sometimes also roles) to the BP activities (e.g. Activiti, jBPM,Intalio—BPMS). Other tools such as YAWL are more expressive because theyare supported by a more powerful organizational meta model. However, YAWLdoes not rely on a specific language for resource assignments, and uses ad-hocmechanisms to assign resources and resolve the assignments instead. Therefore,we believe RAL outperforms the current scope, both at design time and at runtime.4 AvailabilityFurther information about RAL, the descriptions of the tools, user instruc-tions, and downloadable example files can be found at http://www.isa.us.es/cristal. The source code and executable files are available on demand.5 Future WorkCRISTAL can be extended in different directions referring to resource manage-ment in BPs. Some future work consists of adding the proper functionality todetect at design time potential allocation problems that can arise at run time,and which are derived from the control flow of the process, e.g. empty sets of po-tential performers due to the definition of a Binding of Duties (BoD) constraintbetween two activities that belong to different branches of an XOR gateway.Another possible line to extend the tool is about dealing with data togetherwith resources, e.g. to automatically generate Access Control Lists (ACLs) froma resource and data-aware BP model.The optimization of RAL Analyser is also part of planned work.AcknowledgementsWe want to thank ISA group’s development team for the support provided,especially Ana Bele´n Sa´nchez and Edelia Garc´ıa.References1. C. Cabanillas, M. Resinas, and A. Ruiz-Corte´s, “RAL: A High-Level User-OrientedResource Assignment Language for Business Processes,” in Business Process Man-agement Workshops (BPD’11), pp. 50–61, 2012.2. C. Cabanillas, M. Resinas, and A. Ruiz-Corte´s, “Defining and Analysing ResourceAssignments in Business Processes with RAL,” in ICSOC, pp. 477–486, 2011.3. M. Weske, Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures.Springer, 2007.4. “BPMN 2.0,” recommendation, OMG, 2011.5. M. Smith, “Role And Responsibility Charting (RACI),” in Project ManagementForum (PMForum), p. 5, 2005.6. G. Decker, H. Overdick, and M. Weske, “Oryx - an open modeling platform for theBPM community,” in Business Process Management (BPM), pp. 382–385, 2008.7. C. Cabanillas, M. Resinas, and A. Ruiz-Corte´s, “Automated Resource Assignmentin BPMN Models using RACI Matrices,” in OTM Conferences (CoopIS’12), p. Inpress, 2012.

CRISTAL: Collection of Resource-Centric Supporting Tools and Languages

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CRISTAL: Collection of Resource-Centric Supporting Tools and Languages

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