What is meant by process management in a computing environment?

Process management refers to the execution and control of productive functions within a computing environment. This involves the oversight of processes, which are instances of programs in execution, ensuring that they are running efficiently and within the system's resources. It includes various aspects such as scheduling processes to use the CPU, managing memory allocation, and handling process states like running, waiting, or terminated.

In this context, effective process management is critical for system performance. It ensures that multiple processes can run concurrently without adversely affecting each other, which enhances the overall efficiency of the system. By managing how processes are initiated, executed, and terminated, the operating system can optimize resource usage and maintain responsive user experiences.

The other options refer to different aspects of computing: organizing data in a database is related to data management, hardware resource management involves overseeing physical and virtual components of the system, and the implementation of security protocols pertains to safeguarding data and resources. While all these aspects are important in a computing environment, they do not specifically define process management.