Job processing cycle

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In mainframe operating systems, when a job is submitted, the operating system takes the job through a series of steps known as the job processing cycle. A large number of jobs is usually executed in a given time period, such as night, which is a scheme historically known as batch processing. Regardless of the job stream that a given job will follow, its processing cycle always contains the same sequence of steps:

1. Job submission - entering job parameters to the operating system with a scripting language, such as JCL, usually contained in a data set or historically on punch cards
2. Job reading - operating system parses JCL data set
3. Job spooling
4. Job selection
5. Job execution with output spooling - executing actual computer programs included in a job and collecting their output
6. Job transcription