Application processes can run manually, automatically on some trigger condition, or on a user-defined schedule. When a component has several processes, the application determines which ones run and in which order. For instance, an n-tiered application might have a web tier, a middleware tier, and a database tier. And, continuing the example, the database tier must be updated before the other two, which are then deployed concurrently. An application can orchestrate the entire process, including putting target servers online and offline for load balancing as required.

An application process is always associated with a target environment. When an application process runs, it interacts with a specific environment. At least one environment must be associated with the application before the process can run. Application processes are independent of environment; processes can be designed independently of any particular environment. These application processes enable a single application to interact with separate environments, such as QA, or production. To use the same application process with multiple environments (a typical scenario), you associate each environment with the application and run the process separately for each one.