[[configureStep]]
= Configuring a `Step`
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As discussed in xref:domain.adoc[the domain chapter], a `Step` is a
domain object that encapsulates an independent, sequential phase of a batch job and
contains all of the information necessary to define and control the actual batch
processing. This is a necessarily vague description because the contents of any given
`Step` are at the discretion of the developer writing a `Job`. A `Step` can be as simple
or complex as the developer desires. A simple `Step` might load data from a file into the
database, requiring little or no code (depending upon the implementations used). A more
complex `Step` might have complicated business rules that are applied as part of the
processing, as the following image shows:

.Step
image::step.png[Step, scaledwidth="60%"]