Context (computing)

As a process context is called in computer science, in particular in the design of operating systems, all the information that is appropriate for the course and management of processes of importance. Another meaning of the term refers in the context of an economic discussion to the context of business processes.

The context of processes of an operating system

To manage processes an operating system to store information about the process. There are three types of context information:

In a narrower sense, one sees mainly hardware context and system context as the actual process context. The information is managed by the operating system in the so-called process control block.

The context of processes of a business process

For the execution of processes, a company must provide information about the process, change, and supplement leave and save. There are three types of context information:

As a user context, the data of the business process in the assigned role of the user are referred to. As a job - context, the data of the business process are referred to the editing job. As a work context, the data of the business process are referred to in the used environment.

Context control

In the systematic restriction of access to data are the options to hedge business processes. This applies in particular to access the dialog with support systems for the handling and use of corporate data, competitor data and customer data. Objectives are to safeguard against unauthorized reading and writing. By changing access rights depending on the current context can be achieved particularly well the backup targets, such as the Common Criteria of the BSI. In case of errors in the control system, however, the productivity is affected and the acceptance of the support systems damaged.