In a
batch processing computer system, a
job stream,
jobstream, or simply
job is the sequence of
job control language statements (JCL) and data (called
instream data) that comprise a single "unit of work for an operating system". A job consists of the
execution of one or more
programs. Each program execution, called a
job step,
jobstep, or
step, is usually related in some way to the others in the job. Steps in a job are executed sequentially, possibly depending on the results of previous steps.