CRISTAL: Collection of Resource-Centric Supporting Tools and Languages

Abstract

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).