Feature-oriented engineering of declarative artifact-centric process models

Abstract

Declarative artifact-centric process models are suitable for specifying knowledge-intensive processes. Currently, such models need to be designed from scratch, even though existing model fragments could be reused to gain efficiency in designing and maintaining declarative artifact-centric process models. To address this problem, this paper proposes an approach for composing model fragments, abstracted into features, into fully specified declarative artifact-centric process models. We use Guard-Stage-Milestone (GSM) schemas as modeling language and let each feature denote a GSM schema fragment. The approach supports feature composition at different levels of granularity. Permutability of features is analyzed. Syntactic conditions that ensure permutability are defined and refactoring of non-permutable into permutable features is discussed. The approach has been evaluated by implementing it in a tool based on the Case Management Model Notation (CMMN) and applying it to three real-world processes. Using the approach, declarative artifact-centric process models can be composed from existing model fragments in an efficient, robust and correct way.