The Process Highlighter: From Texts to Declarative Processes and Back

The adoption of formal models by process specialists has faced two challenges: First, it requires process specialists to get training in formal modeling. Second, the resulting specifications bear little resemblance wrt. the original descriptions. We introduce a tool that supports translations between natural language descriptions and declarative process models. The resulting models are given in a graphical formalism, DCR Graphs. Traceability is at the core of the tool: Later changes in the process model due to, e.g., ambiguity resolution are traced back into the text. This allows users to either correct and complete their descriptions, or to derive models more refined than the text. In this paper, we describe the mechanics of the tool and provide examples of its use. Finally, we report on experiences using the tool in a Danish Municipal government.