Table of Contents
An activity is a task that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time or by a deadline to work towards work-related goals. Activities can be linked together using rules to create dependencies.
An activity is the core of a business process, the work being done in order to reach a goal.
Attributes
An activity holds several different attributes. Each attribute has three state-values, It can have rules to other activities, It can have a name, role(s) assigned to it, a description, and be part of tags and a level.
State-Values
The three Boolean states that every activity has are:
- Included
- Pending
- Executed
All the rules are based on these values.
Creating Activities

- We can create new activities in models by clicking on the + Add Activity button in the activities/process panel (placed on left by default)
- We can also click on insert in main menu on the top and then click on + New Activity
- Another way is to right click on the canvas anywhere (gray area), a menu will be shown click on Add Activity and a new Activity will be created there
- We can also create a new Activity by dragging the + Add Activity button found in the activities/process panel to the canvas and after drag a new Activity will be created there.
Activity grouping
Activities can be grouped into other activities. Such containers can have different types
- Nesting
- Subprocess
- Subgraph (and multi-instance subprocess)
- Form
- Transactional subprocess - not yet supported
Data activities
Learn more about data activities here.
Associate roles with an activity
Read more about roles here.
Associate phases to an activities
Read more here.
Activity effects
Activity effects makes it possible for DCR to invoke other systems, e.g. retrieve an address of a company using the unique company id. Read more here.
Resource expression
A resource expression is evaluated before an activity is executed and unless true the activity cannot be executed. This can be used to support separation of duties, e.g. ensuring the same person cannot approve his own work. Read more here.