parent process
What It Means
A parent process is a main computer program or system that spawns and manages smaller sub-programs or tasks within it. Think of it as a master coordinator that launches and oversees multiple related activities, much like a project manager who delegates specific tasks to team members while maintaining overall control.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Parent processes are critical for AI system reliability and security because if a parent process fails, all its child processes typically fail too, creating cascading system outages. CAIOs need to understand this hierarchy to design robust AI architectures, implement proper monitoring, and ensure that critical AI services have appropriate backup parent processes to maintain business continuity.
Real-World Example
When an AI-powered customer service platform starts up, the main application serves as the parent process that launches separate child processes for natural language processing, database connections, API handlers, and chat interface management. If the parent process crashes due to a memory leak, all customer chat sessions would immediately disconnect, even though the individual AI models were functioning perfectly.
Common Confusion
People often confuse parent processes with simply 'main programs' or think all processes are independent. The key distinction is the hierarchical relationship where parent processes actively manage and can terminate their children, creating dependencies that don't exist between unrelated processes.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare IT systems, a parent process typically manages critical workflows like patient data processing, where it s...
Finance: In finance systems, a parent process typically refers to a master application that spawns multiple child processes to ha...
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- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"A process that may contain one or more sub-processes, activities, and tasks."Source: IEEE_Guide_IPA
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