1. < operating system , software > The sequence of states of an executing program . A process consists of the program code (which may be shared with other processes which are executing the same program), private data, and the state of the processor , particularly the values in its registers . It may have other associated resources such as a process identifier , open files, CPU time limits, shared memory , child processes , and signal handlers .
One process may, on some platforms , consist of many threads . A multitasking operating system can run multiple processes concurrently or in parallel , and allows a process to spawn "child" processes.
(2001-06-16)
2. The sequence of activities, people, and systems involved in carrying out some business or achieving some desired result. E.g. software development process, project management process, configuration management process.
(2001-06-16)