Enterprise Analysis Assignment 2020

Decision Management-Declarative process modeling

(Prof. Dr. Jan Vanthienen)

Task 1. Decision Modeling

Case description
Consider this policy for handling admission applications from international applicants at KU Leuven.

In order to apply for admission, candidates fill in an online application form by a fixed deadline (the
deadline is the same for all applicants). Online applications are recorded in an information system to which
all staff members involved in the admissions process have access. Prior to submitting the online form, the
applicant must upload electronic copies of the following documents: (i) a motivation letter; (ii) certified
copies of previous degrees and academic transcripts; (iii) copy of identity document; (iv) copy of English
language test results. Applicants can view and track the status of their application via the online application
system.

Once an applicant has submitted the online application, a PDF document is automatically generated based
on the application data. The applicant is requested to download this document, sign it, and send it by post
together with the certified copies of previous degree and academic transcripts. All documents are assumed
to be authentic and valid. Documents take on average 10 days to reach KU Leuven by post. KU Leuven waits
at most 4 weeks for the hard copy of a given application to arrive (together with accompanying certified
copies). Otherwise the application is disqualified.

Four weeks after the submission deadline, incomplete applications are discarded and the admissions officer
reads the motivation letters and assigns a score to it. The complete applications are then forwarded to the
Intelligent Admission Application system.

The system converts the grade point average (GPA) to a standard GPA score based on a GPA conversion
table. Based on the collected information, the Intelligent Admission Application System classifies the
candidates into inacceptable, medium or top candidates. Top candidates have a converted GPA of 4.5 or
more and a motivation letter score of 8 or more. Candidates with a GPA of less than 4 or a motivation letter
score less than 6 are not acceptable. All other candidates are considered medium. Only top candidates can
receive a scholarship. Acceptable candidates receive a preference score depending on GPA and letter score.
Currently the score is calculated as 2*GPA + letter_score. The ranking is automated. After the ranking run,
the system produces the list of acceptable candidates according to their preference score and with the
indication of scholarship (Y/N).

Each year, KU Leuven receives in total 4000 online applications. Applicants compete for 3000 study places.
There is no limit on the number of scholarships.

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Immediately after the ranking, the admission office sends the corresponding notifications to the candidates
with the highest scores. It is assumed that all candidates will take their place.

Question 1 – Model the student admission decisions with DMN

Capture the decisions in DMN (and BPMN) in Signavio or Camunda. You need to submit:

1) A readable printout of the DMN model and a structured description of your model. This description
should complement your model so that it can be easily understood. Also, in this description, do not
copy text from the case description, there is no point in re-explaining. The DMN model includes
tables, which should be included in the page count. Nice looking models are preferred, so pay
attention to lay-out.
2) The place of DMN in (part of) the BPMN model. The full BPMN model should not be included.
Do not submit more than 4 pages for answering this question. Additional pages result in a subtraction
of 1 point per additional page.

Task 2. Declarative process modeling

Case description
Our research group has recently decided to buy a new coffee machine in order to investigate whether the
effect of better coffee has a positive effect on the quality and quantity of the publications produced.
However, in order to supervise how the ordering process went, the head of the department asks you to
model the ordering process in Declare, as he is very fond of rules, and as this process is very hard to capture
in a fixed, procedural workflow.

The following steps take place in the usual coffee ordering process. Before you order the machine, you
gather information. Hence, you can visit several websites, and on every website you can find the
specifications of certain machines. If you want to see the specifications again, you have to recheck the
website. Meanwhile, funds need to be found, for which you possibly have to apply multiple times. These
funds are necessary to pay for the machine. At least 2 sources of funding need to be obtained before the
coffee machine can be ordered, as the machine is relatively expensive and one fund will not suffice. Also,
multiple sellers need to be contacted in order to find the lowest price. At least 2 sellers should be
contacted, after which a bargaining phase can take place. From time to time, the whole process is
interrupted by certain events, such as ad-hoc staff meetings. They typically influence which type of funds
will be gathered next, and which suppliers will be contacted.

After making a decision and gathering the right amount of funds (you can make an abstraction of the price
and data variables here), you can order the machine. After ordering it, you receive the machine and the
process ends.

Question 2 – Model the process in a declarative way using Declare

Building a process model by carefully scrutinizing all possible execution paths sometimes leads to a complex
model that requires quite some effort. For this question, you are required to construct a body of rules that
can be quickly checked and hence used for verifying that the most important constraint behavior is present
and the overall structure fundamentally supports the goal of the process.

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For doing so, you are required to construct a Declare model. For this purpose, you use the Declare
modeling tool. Make sure you keep the model straightforward, and write in your report how you made sure
there are no deadlocks, dead activities, etc.

https://www.win.tue.nl/declare/download/
http://cpntools.org/

Submit a readable printout of the Declare model and a structured description of your model. Explain how
you validated the model, etc. Do not submit more than 2 pages for answering this question.

Practical arrangements
- You need to upload a written report with your answers to the questions. At all times, be as concise as
possible. Observe that we will evaluate your assignment report in a typical management-style
approach, so make sure that your report is concise and easy to read.

- You will work in the same team of students as for the other assignment for this course. Indicate how
you organized that every team member is involved in both cases.

- Follow the page limitations detailed above (and one additional front page stating the team members).
The front page should include your names and student IDs.

- Do not send us your model with the question if the model would be ok.

- Deadline: Every team will submit the report by December 14, end of day. Only one person per team
should upload (the first one in alphabetical order) and inform all team members when the upload was
finished. This deadline is strict and no other forms of submission will be allowed! Failing to hand in on
time will result in a score of 0 for the assignment.

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