The batching framework defines the concept of a batch job, which is a feature of the application that can be executed without user interaction. A single job consists of one or more steps, which can be executed sequentially or in parallel. Additionally, a sequence of steps can be grouped into a flow. The start of a parallel execution is called a switch. And finally, if we want to control the sequence of steps using conditional statements, we should use decisions. These following five nouns are the basic building blocks of a batch application. To compose such an application, we will use a specification language written in an XML file, as shown in the following code snippet:

<job id="jobName">
    <step> … </step>
    <step> … </step>
    <decision> … </decision>
    <flow> … </flow>
    <split> … </split>
</job>

A step is the basic unit of work and our main area of interest. The batching...