Three Decades of Formal Methods in Business Process Compliance: A Systematic Literature Review

Digitalization efforts often face a key challenge: business processes must not only be efficient in achieving their goals but also adhere to legal regulations. Business process compliance refers to aligning processes with these regulations. Numerous frameworks have been developed to address this, with the earliest dating back to 1981. This study focuses on rigorous frameworks using formal methods to verify or ensure compliance. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) on process compliance frameworks based on formal models. Our goal was to assess the current state of research on process model compliance and identify gaps and opportunities for future work. Starting with 5018 candidate studies from 1981 to the establishment of GDPR, we selected 46 primary studies. These frameworks were categorized by their phases, the languages used for processes and compliance, and their reasoning techniques. We also examined their practical applicability, the case studies they were tested on, the types of users involved, and the skills needed for compliance. Also, we assessed the maturity of each framework. Our findings reveal strong consensus around verification techniques as central to process compliance, though there is less agreement on the earlier and later phases of compliance. Model checking is the dominant technique, but the compliance and process languages have evolved. Most frameworks are still conceptual with prototype implementations, often failing to account for compliance professionals like legal experts or law changes. In conclusion, there is a need for comprehensive empirical studies to better understand the anatomy and maturity of regulatory compliance frameworks, and for robust evaluation methods to benchmark these frameworks. This review offers valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in process compliance.