DALEC: a framework for the systematic evaluation of data-centric approaches to process management software

The increasing importance of data in business processes has led to the emergence of data-centric business process management, which deviates from the widely used activity-centric paradigm. Data-centric approaches set their focus on data, aiming at supporting data-intensive business processes and increased process flexibility. The objective of this article is to gain profound insights into the maturity of different data-centric approaches as well as their capabilities. In particular, this article will provide a framework for systematically evaluating and comparing data-centric approaches, with regard to the phases of the business process lifecycle. To this end, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted with the goal of evaluating the capabilities of data-centric process management approaches. The SLR comprises 38 primary studies which were thoroughly analyzed. The studies were categorized into different approaches, whose capabilities were thoroughly assessed. Special focus was put on the tooling and software of the approaches. The article provides the empirically grounded DALEC framework to evaluate and compare data-centric approaches. Furthermore, the results of the SLR offer insights into existing data-centric approaches and their capabilities. Data-centric approaches promise better support of loosely structured and data-intensive business processes, which may not be adequately represented by activity-centric paradigms.